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give a good account of themselves when Zimbabwe take part in the 2011 Cosafa Metropolitan Under-20 championships in Gaborone, Botswana next week.
With Zifa struggling for financial resources in which the soccer mother body has had to be heavily reliant on the association’s president Cuthbert Dube to bail them out, Mangwiro only assembled his side on Monday afternoon with training commencing the following day.

Such is tight financial situation at Zifa that the Young Warriors were by late yesterday still to be advised on how and when they would be travelling to Botswana.
Dube has also had to bail out Zifa by paying the salaries for the association’s staff and even the board fees for his colleagues in the executive.
It is a situation, which even Dube himself admits is not sustainable in the long run, and the Zifa boss is expected to implore both the board and the assembly to help

identify a substantive sponsor for the association ahead of what promises to be a busy 2012 season.

Despite their financial and material challenges, Zifa have somehow scrambled and managed to have three national teams – the Warriors, the Mighty Warriors, and the Young Warriors, taking part in international assignments at the same time.
The Warriors will be part of the Cecafa tournament that bursts into life in Tanzania today, the Mighty Warriors have been in Cairo, Egypt for a three-nation tournament which also includes Tunisia and the hosts and next week, the Young Warriors will be seeking Cosafa glory in Botswana.

Mangwiro has had 34 players in training this week but expected to trim it down today and name his final travelling party of 20.
The Monomotapa coach said although they had very limited time to build-up for the annual competition that has over the years proven to be key to the development of local players, he remained confident that his charges would rise up to the challenges they will face in Gaborone.

The Young Warriors are in a cagey Group D that includes perennial campaigners Angola, Madagascar and Namibia with Mangwiro’s teenagers penciled in to open their campaign against 2010 losing finalists Namibia on December 2.

Mangwiro said he would use their friendly match against Northern Region Division One side Highfield United at Rufaro this morning to make a final assessment of the players at their disposal.

“Today we had only one training session and we have a practice match against Highfield United at Rufaro at 9am tomorrow after which we will announce the final 20 that we are taking to Botswana.

“I am happy to have noted though that most of the players that we have are in good shape except for the five schoolboys who understandably only get a chance to play football in the second term.
“But for most of the players it has been football throughout the year as they have been playing for their Division One and Premiership clubs and those are in good condition,” Mangwiro said.

Like any other coach, more so one who has the extra burden of having to identify and blend talent drawn from across the country’s provinces, Mangwiro would have needed either regular training camps or a longer training stint with his charges.

“Other teams have had a chance for periodical training camps but for us we only got together this week. I am happy though that we have some talented youngsters and despite our little time of training camp together, we will make do with what we have,” Mangwiro said.

The coach can, however, still count on such players like Kiglon goalkeeper Seaba Maponga, defender Kuda Mahachi, Tichaona Mabvura, Edwin Nkomo, Willard Kalongoda and Nqobizitha Masuku who were in the side that managed a third-place finish last year.