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Fungai Muderere
FOLLOWING Warriors’ lacklustre performance against the Flames of Malawi last Sunday, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) competitions and media manager Gome Zakazaka has reckoned the bulk of Zdravko Logarusic’s charges showed a lack of match fitness.
The drab match which was played at Mpira Village Stadium ended nil all with Warriors stand-in captain Khama Billiat, Aston Villa’s Marvelous Nakamba Teenage Hadebe, Devine Lunga and Alec Mudimu being the only regular Warriors players that featured in the game.
Zakazaka said against such a negative fitness level background in Warriors camp, Zimbabwe should be wary of Algeria whom they meet in their next 2021 Afcon qualifier.
“While it was good to see Zimbabwe field the likes of Khama Billiat and Marvelous Nakamba who are some of the big names in African football, it was so clear that the majority of Zimbabwe players were lacking match fitness. As such,
I believe we should be wary of Algeria,” said Zakazaka in a telephone interview from Blantyre, Malawi.
“However, out of a scale of 10, I can give Zimbabwe seven marks because their tactical approach and organisation were superior. As for us (Malawi), we wasted a lot of chances,” added Zakazaka.
Malawi on their part managed to arrange two games as they prepare for the upcoming games against Burkina Faso.
They played Zambia last week and last Sunday coach Meck Mwase reportedly made five changes to the team that lost 0-1 to Chipolopolo.
“It’s good that we managed to play two international friendly matches in a space of four days. This is the same scenario we are going to experience for our games against Burkina Faso,” said Zakazaka.
Logarusic, who was in charge in his first official match after assuming his role in late February, used 16 players out 18 that he had travelled with. Unheralded pair of Tanaka Chinyahara and Takudzwa Chimwemwe got game time alongside former Highlanders midfielder King Nadolo who is now in the books of Dynamos.
Phineas Bamusi, Ishmael Wadi, Stanley Ngala and Qadir Amin were axed from the Warriors squad a day before departure to Malawi and there were late calls for Lunga, Dennis Dauda, Tafadzwa Rusike and dreadlocked Evans Katema.
Online Reporter