Young Warriors shift training base

For the past month, newly appointed Under-20 coach Jairos Tapera had been identifying players around the country with the potential of playing for the Young Warriors.
He is working with Gunners’ mentor, George Madira, as the assistant coach, Laban Kandi is the goalkeeper’s trainer and Lloyd Chinawa is the team manager. Tapera is almost starting from scratch to assemble a new squad after he replaced Taurai Mangwiro as coach of the junior team.
On Monday, the players went into camp at the Zifa Village with about 50 players coming for training and Tapera has to whittle the number ahead of the African Under-20 Championship first round, first leg on April 21.
“We have over 50 players who have been coming for training and I can say that response has been okay. We are still looking for the right combinations. For now we are looking for people to play in defensive link and right back positions.
“At least we are considering people who are natural for these positions,” said Tapera.
Tapera, who guided FC Platinum into the Premiership at the end of 2010 season, believes he has a decent pool of players who only need more time together.
“The players are good. But what we need is more time before they can reach the level of competition expected. For now we just need to grind a result and I hope they will have improved a lot by the time we play in the second leg,” said Tapera.
The new look Under-20 team is not short of players with international exposure as they have DC Academy’s Willard Kalongonda and Kuda Mahachi.
“PSL teams have sent in their players and we are looking at them. Dynamos and Monomotapa released players because these have not been able to come during the time we were holding trials. So we are set to leave for Bulawayo tomorrow (today) and will link up with guys from Bantu Rovers who have just returned from the United States.
“We are looking at playing practice matches in Bulawayo and remain in camp until the match on April 21,” said Tapera.
While Zimbabwe will be looking at progressing to the next round, Tapera has emphasised that their goal was to develop players who will make the bedrock of the senior national team in future.
“It’s important that we work together with coaches from the Under-17 who can recommend players to us,” he said.