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Petros Kausiyo in CAPE TOWN, South Africa
ZIMBABWE’S brave draw against Morocco in their opening African Nations Championships tie has won them the admiration of Ugandan coach Milutin “Micho’’ Sredojevic with the Serbian rating the Warriors as the favourites to top Group B. The Warriors missed a number of very close chances to settle for a 0-0 draw against the Atlas Lions at Athlone Stadium here on Sunday before Uganda turned on the style to overcome Burkina Faso 2-1 in the other group game at the same venue.
Yesterday, both Zimbabwe and Uganda put behind their Sunday night results and shifted their focus to their showdown on Thursday with either side having mid-morning workouts to start preparations for the encounter.
Despite his Cranes getting off to a flying start Micho insisted, it was the Warriors who were the favourites to top the group or, at least, finish among the top two teams and proceed to the quarter-finals.
The former Orlando Pirates and Al Hilal coach, who has also seen duty with the Rwanda national team, told The Herald yesterday he had been impressed by the Warriors after assessing the first eight teams to swing into action in the opening two days of the CHAN tournament.
Micho saluted the Warriors for their work ethic and reckoned that “they are a team with balance, experience and tactical awareness’’. The Cranes, making their second appearance at the CHAN tournament which is a competition reserved for only players playing in their national leagues, are aiming to do better this time around following a poor debut at the 2011 tournament in Sudan where they finished pointless. Zimbabwe now stand in the way of a bid for a 100 percent record for Uganda in Group B when the two teams clash at Athlone on Thursday.
But their Serbian coach insisted yesterday that the Cranes were under no illusions about the tough task they face against the Warriors claiming that he had seen enough quality in the Warriors before and during their game against Morocco to be convinced that they posed the toughest hurdle for his charges.
“Since I came to Africa, I knew Zimbabwe as the breadbasket of the region and I have had respect for the country,” said Micho.
“I call Zimbabwe the African football garden because of the enormous talent that has come out of this country.
“Zimbabwe provides the highest number of foreign players in the South African league which speaks volumes about the talent in the country and before they came to this tournament, they sent Zambia packing and that speaks a lot about the quality of this team.
“I have also known Ian Gorowa for a long time now, he has passed through a lot and I think he has worked very hard and deserves to be national coach of his country. Zimbabwe also has very passionate supporters and players who play with a passion and I think they are a role model for African teams and for the teams at this CHAN tournament.
“When you look at all the facts I think for Uganda it will be one and half hours of learning against a top-class team when we play Zimbabwe in our next game.”
Micho said he had been charmed by the fact that Zimbabwe were “playing as a team and not about individual names and maintained that his praises for the Warriors were not mere mind games but based on his knowledge of the country.
“It (the victory over Burkina Faso) is a first historical win for Uganda in a very long time but we are not getting carried away. I know all about Zimbabwe and I have interacted with many Zimbabwean players, especially Edward Sadomba, who is a great talent and a true professional.
“Zimbabwe have a young team but not younger than Uganda because I have some very young players, some of them schoolboys who are flying out of Uganda for the first time. I only have four experienced players and the rest are getting benefit from every minute spent in the CHAN and this is a developmental tournament for the future. Out of the eight teams that I have seen since the tournament started Zimbabwe has the biggest quality and the best balance and a lot of tactical direction from their bench. I predict a very tough game that can go either way and it will show us our real value at the moment.
“So many people were speaking a lot about Morocco as a team with so many famous players from Raja Casablanca whose quality was shown by beating some top teams at the Fifa Club World Cup but Zimbabwe outplayed them and showed that names do not play football.
Online Reporter