adminwith a home clash against Mozambique.
And, given the yardstick of success set by the Mighty Warriors, the junior national team is under pressure to perform.
As the Young Mighty Warriors left Harare International Airport, a number of fans mistook them for the Mighty Warriors, with a lot of them wishing them luck in their adventure.
All the hype has surrounded the Mighty Warriors and they moved into the final qualifying round of the Caf African Women’s Championships.
The Young Mighty Warriors can also lay claim to that success by saying that they were the grooming ground for most of the players who now feature in the Mighty Warriors.
Under Mufakose Queens’ coach Langton Giwa, the Young Mighty Warriors want to make a huge impact and are ready to give South Africa a good run and then turn their guns on Mozambique.
Tomorrow’s match had initially been scheduled for Sunday but has since been brought forward to Saturday as the South Africa Under-17 women’s soccer team will be playing Namibia in the World Cup finals here this weekend.
Safa have decided that the two matches be staged on the same day with the Under-17 match being played in the afternoon and the Zimbabwe/South Africa international friendly coming up at 6pm.
Zimbabwe are not involved in the Under-17 World Cup finals, as they only entered the senior team and the Under-20 side in the Caf African Women Championships, and the Fifa Under-20 World Cup finals.
Captain Portia Mukucha said the girls were thrilled by the challenge of playing in the World Cup qualifiers and were taking this preparatory match seriously.
“We want to qualify for the World Cup and we are happy we have been accorded this chance by Zifa to be playing in these qualifiers. We are also ready to show the nation what we can do as the Under-20 team. We want to emulate what our seniors have been doing.
“They have raised the bar of women’s football and everyone is now supporting women’s football so for us it’s easy but we have to start and maintain the winning mentality which has become a culture at the Mighty Warriors.
“It would be our first time to play an international match as we are a still a new team but all the girls are just confident that we will beat South Africa in this match,” said Mukucha.
The New Orleans goalkeeper is one of the few junior players in this team who have had senior national team drafts but have never made it into the final team.
The most experienced player in this squad, Mighty Warriors defender Eunice Chibanda, said the youthful players were raring to go and believes the rookies won’t be embarrassed by the hosts.
“We have played South Africa before at the Zone Six Games and we beat them to the gold medal. But their team has changed as well and we don’t know their play but we believe we have an edge over South
Africa juniors and we are ready for them.
“The players are confident and have been displaying fighting spirit at training. I know a lot is expected from me as an experienced player who plays for the national team and has met South Africa a number of
occasions now. And I am ready to guide the youngsters because we want to beat Mozambique home and away and progress to the next round where we will meet Nigeria,” said Chibanda.
Online Reporter