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Lovemore Dube in Dubai
THE Young Warriors coaches are keen to subject their players to Magnetic Resonance Imaging ahead of the qualifiers of three major tournaments set for the next two years.This was said by the national Under-23 team head coach Callisto Pasuwa during a three-hour stopover in Dubai yesterday.
Pasuwa’s charges were enroute to Morocco whom they play in an international friendly match today. Both teams are preparing for the African Under-23 Championship finals to be hosted by the Democratic Republic of Congo and All-Africa Games due in Congo Brazzaville next year and the big one being the Rio de Jainero Olympics of 2016.
“With funds permitting we’re going to ask Zifa to help us with the MRI. This will help us take the right aged players to these competitions. We want to guard against a situation where we use players who will then be disqualified at the wrong time when we’ve put in a lot of work into the team.
“If funds permit we will ask Zifa to help us with this exercise. We don’t want something that happened to the Under-17s in 2012 to recur,” said the Dynamos gaffer who has won three consecutive championships on the trot and is still within a historic fourth.
Two years ago the Zimbabwe Under-17 team was left with 10 players in camp when the MRI was mentioned as a number of players feared they would be caught.
Age cheating, Pasuwa said, had to be eliminated in the game.
His assistant Saul Chaminuka who presided over the 2-0 win over Swaziland last month echoed Pasuwa’s sentiments.
“It retards the growth of the players and our football. Age cheating must be nipped in the bud. We really would want that exercise done,” said the ZPC coach who is chasing the title and is leading the Castle Lager log table.
Pasuwa and Chaminuka said they were confident that if all the boys that they have so far identified come right, the rebuilding exercise for the Warriors could be on track. Zimbabwe disbanded its senior national team after being knocked out of the 2015 Afcon qualifiers by Tanzania earlier this year.
Hopes are high that this group that will face Morocco tomorrow could just be the right material.
Chaminuka said they were happy with some of the new faces thrown into the side who were not part of the teams that played Botswana and Swaziland in the last two months.
“We dropped some of the players because of discipline but we’re confident we will be able to come up with a good side before the qualifiers start,” said Chaminuka.
Praise Tonha, Knox Mutizwa and Nqobizitha Masuku are some of the players dropped from the side that toured Swaziland.
The coaches said they had left out Liberty Chakoromoka of Harare City and FC Platinum’s Walter Musona, Kevin Moyo and Wisdom Mutasa because of their involvement in tomorrow’s Chibuku Super Cup final in Zvishavane.
Douglas Sibanda, Teenage Hadebe, Ronald Pfumbidzai and Blessing Moyo are favourites for the back four positions.
The coaches praised Zifa for affording them an opportunity to play Morocco which is a strong side.
“They’re quick on the ball and very tactically strong. They can press for goal in the opening minutes and get it, so you have to be equal to the task in all respects. It’s really good exposure for the team,” said Pasuwa.
Zifa were yesterday still hopeful Kuda Mahachi would make the trip after being denied permission to travel by authorities at Johannesburg’s Oliver Tambo International Airport on Thursday evening. They demanded assurances that he would get visas in Dubai and Morocco.
The Young Warriors contingent arrived at 4.30AM yesterday after a six hour flight from Zambia and spent eight hours at the Dubai International Airport. They then left for Casablanca in Morocco at 2.55PM and were due to connect to the city of Agadir where the match would be played at 8.25PM last night.
The Europe based contingent is expected to join the rest of the team ahead of today’s training session at the game venue.
Head of delegation Tawengwa Hara said the morale in the team was high and that the boys were looking forward to the match.
derick.khumalo