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Sunday Chidzambwa

Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
WARRIORS coach Sunday Chidzambwa, worried about long spells of inactivity by his side is set to meet with ZIFA this week to find ways of getting the senior national team into regular action.

Chidzambwa who was handed a one-year contract by ZIFA with a mandate to take the Warriors to the 2019 African Cup of Nations in Cameroon, would have to wait until September before he can face competitive action.

Zimbabwe will resume their qualification bid for a place at the Nations Cup with an away assignment against Congo in Brazzaville. But the veteran coach is not amused by that long wait and knows the implications of long spells of inactivity.

Chidzambwa has already drafted a plan and this week the former Dynamos gaffer will meet with his superiors at ZIFA to explore the possibilities of utilising the international dates that have been set aside by FIFA for friendlies as well as arranging more games that could help him assess the material he has on offer.

Chidzambwa revealed yesterday that he would also want assurance from ZIFA that resources would be made available to fly in some of the players he would want to have a closer look at.

The Confederation of African Football moved all the Nations Cup qualifiers which were scheduled for March and directed that they resume after the World Cup in Russia in July.

This was aimed at helping Africa’s five representatives at the World Cup enough time to focus on their preparations for the global soccer show-piece.

Although the Nations Cup qualifiers were rescheduled, the March dates remain open for FIFA friendlies and Chidzambwa, who wants the association to depart from the last minute preparation they are usually associated with, has impressed on the importance of fully utilising the FIFA dates as well as the need “to play as many preparatory games as the team can.”

The coach’s first date with some of the foreign based players who might be on his wish list will only come from March 19 to 27 which is the first window that has been set for FIFA internationals. Chidzambwa also spoke of his desire that by the time the foreign stars return home for the off season in May, he should have the bulk of the players he wants to use in the qualifiers.

“I am meeting with ZIFA this week to arrange about the friendly matches that we would be playing. Obviously, during these matches we would want to see some of the players we have never seen in action.

“Some of the players playing outside came last year, but there are many of them, who are yet to be tested so we will hear from ZIFA, what their plan is with the team regarding our opponents and our players.

“I will also table mine and see how it goes. We want to play as many friendly matches as we can and build the team early not start preparing in September when the qualifiers are around the corner. We have to prepare now. I would want a situation that by the time we reach off season we will know which players are in our plans.

“We have a lot of players who are good out there, who need to be assessed before we present them to ZIFA that they are in our plans,” said Chidzambwa.

Zimbabwe clash against Congo is between September 3 to 11.

Skipper Knowledge Musona and his troops will then engage Democratic Republic of Congo in back to back matches between October 8-16.

The Warriors will then travel to Monrovia on November 12 to 20 for their reverse fixture before completing Group G with a home assignment against Congo next year in March.

Chidzambwa said although the Warriors have slid on the FIFA World rankings, his main concern was on ensuring qualification for the Nations Cup.

“What is important is to assemble a good team that will qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations. To me the rankings are not that important,” he said.

The former ZPC Kariba coach also heaped praises on some of the players plying their trade outside particularly in the South African Premiership, who were on target during the weekend.

“I have been monitoring some of the players playing outside, unfortunately most of them are from South Africa, and I have been able to watch on television. I saw that Ovidy (Karuru), scored, Dominic Chungwa also scored on his debut and Khama Billiat scored two goals for Sundowns, so it is a good thing really for the players as well as the national team,” said Chidzambwa.