Young Mighty Warriors get paid

Under-20 World Cup, first leg, first round qualifier at Rufaro on Sunday.
The Young Mighty Warriors, who thrashed the Young Mambas 4-0 to put one foot into the next round where they will meet the Falconets of Nigeria at end of March following the withdrawal of Sierra Leone, will carry a healthy lead when they travel to Maputo in a fortnight.
Langton Giwa’s charges briefly broke camp yesterday and will resume training on Thursday as they prepare for the reverse fixture in Maputo on March 3.
The Under-20 team players got a winning bonus of US$300 each for thrashing Mozambique and got a further US$150 as appearance fee.
They had been in camp since January 31 before traveling to South Africa for a warm-up match which meant that they earned another US$190 in camping allowances for the 19 days they had been preparing for the Mozambique game.
Giwa and members of his technical team each pocketed US$980 – US$400 winning bonus, US$200 appearance fee, and US$380 camping allowance.
Zimbabwe are expected to wrap up the first round series and earn another US$600 if they manage to dump the neighbours in two weeks time as women’s football begin to reap the fruits of partnering with diamond mining giants Marange Resources.
The Under-20 team which is in running for the two African slots on offer for the World Cup finals to be staged in August in Japan have a busy schedule if they continue winning.
But their real test will come in the second round where Nigeria, who remain the only African side not to have missed out on the bi-annual World Championships since its inception in 2002, are waiting in ambush
In the last World Cup edition held in Germany, the Falconets of Nigeria and Ghana were the African representatives at the junior teams showpiece.
In fact, the women’s teams will have to negotiate tough hurdles as the Mighty Warriors would also be meeting the Super Falcons of Nigeria in the last round of the African Championships qualifiers.
. Rosemary Mugadza charges booked a place in the next round after beating Botswana Zebras and will clash with the West Africans giants in May with the winner qualifying for the women’s version of the Africa Cup of Nations to be held in Equatorial Guinea in November.
However, the Young Mighty Warriors technical advisor Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe believes the junior side, who began their journey on a positive note can stun the Nigerians and progress to the third and last qualifying round.
The former CAPS United and Kiglon coach believes the youthful team has the pedigree to become a formidable team.
“There is still a lot of work to be done and Sunday’s match showed an improvement from the previous match. It is encouraging that each department showed strengths and weaknesses. We are going to put much more work and even the return match should be more polished than the one at Rufaro.
“I would propose that after the Maputo match the team should not break camp as they prepare for Nigeria because as we have seen with the senior team lengthy training camp really helps the team to gel.
“The type of the opposition also determines the type of play and the Mozambicans were just camped in their defence, they didn’t expect to score and wanted to minimise the damage and would just feign injuries hence that affected our play. But this doesn’t take the fact that our team didn’t play to full potential.
“I was particularly impressed with the way the youngest player in the team Mavis Chirandu played. She is only 15 and played like a veteran doing well on the flanks and surely this generation can do more,” said Jongwe.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s Black Princesses were the continent’s biggest winners and took a giant step towards qualification when they beat Namibia 7-0 in Accra. In the other Caf results, South Africa’s Baby Banyana beat Botswana 4-1 in Gaborone while neighbours Zambia were given a run for their money before beating Kenya 2-1 in Lusaka. In a North African derby, Morocco lost 5-0 at home to rivals Tunisia as the battle for the global championship fixed for 18 August to 9 September gained momentum.
Ten of 16 berths in the tournament have been decided, going to hosts Japan, Germany, Italy, China, Argentina and Brazil.