Warriors hold first training session in South Africa

Tadious Manyepo in JOHANNESBURG, South Africa

WARRIORS coach Norman Mapeza is happy with his players’ attitude after holding his first training session with 21 members of his squad at the Sandton Sports Club here this morning.

Zimbabwe play South Africa in the penultimate round of the 2022 World Cup football qualifier at the FNB Stadium on Thursday night.

They are already out of the equation for the global competition set for Qatar next year after faltering in the first four rounds of the qualifiers.

But Mapeza has demanded that the team keep maximum concentration for the coming match against Bafana Bafana before concluding their group business against Ethiopia at home on Sunday.

“Of course, I am very happy as a coach with the players’ attitude after the first training session this morning,” said Mapeza.

“We will hold the second session this afternoon and also train twice tomorrow. The players are responding well.”

Tendayi Darikwa and Tawanda Maswanhise have been ruled out of the clash against Bafana Bafana due to family and logistical issues.

Darikwa won’t be available either for the home match against Ethiopia while Maswanhise is expected to be in.

Brendan Galloway and Knox Mutizwa, who were the only ones missing in the morning session, have already arrived in Johannesburg and are expected to join the afternoon drills.

Warriors manager, Wellington Mpandare, last night had to run around to secure an alternative venue for training after SAFA offered two facilities which the Zimbabwean authorities deemed unfit.

“The other one has an artificial turf while another had tall grass. We then had to find and pay for our own training venue. We have paid for two sessions that is morning and afternoon today,” said Mpandare.

“The SAFA guys promised to cut the grass at the other venue and we hope by tomorrow morning they would have done that. We came here prepared as we learnt our lessons in Ghana after we had to train on a sub-standard pitch.”