Mhofu talks up COSAFA Sunday Chidzambwa
Sunday Chidzambwa

Sunday Chidzambwa

Petros Kausiyo in SUN CITY, South Africa
STAND-IN Zimbabwe coach Sunday Chidzambwa believes the 2017 COSAFA Castle Cup provides the Warriors with a great chance to widen their selection base for the African Cup of Nations and CHAN campaigns.

This year’s edition of Southern Africa’s flagship tournament will burst into life at the Moruleng Stadium tomorrow when guest nation Tanzania face Malawi at 3pm before four-time champions Angola take on Mauritius at the same venue two and half hours later.

Chidzambwa is making a return to the tournament he has twice won before in 2003 and 2009.

The revered coach noted that the Warriors rarely get a chance to play international friendly matches and reckoned that such competitions like the COSAFA Castle Cup provided that platform for the bulk of the fringe players to get exposure and also stake claims for regular places in the Nations Cup or World Cup squads.

The Warriors will get their COSAFA Castle Cup Group B campaign underway with a clash against Mozambique at Moruleng Stadium on Monday.

They will then face Madagascar and Seychelles at Royal Bafokeng stadium on Wednesday and Friday next week respectively.

Chidzambwa has made no secret of his intentions of going beyond the group stage and actually challenge for the honours this year and has blended his team with five South Africa-based players – Ovidy Karuru, George Chigova, Michelle Katsvairo, Knox Mutizwa and Eric Chipeta.

The veteran coach defended his inclusion of the seasoned players arguing that he wanted them to provide the guiding light to the rookies such as Black Rhinos defender Bruce Homora, Yadah Stars’ 18 year-old midfielder Leeroy Mavunga and Blessing Majarira of Northern Region Division One title aspirants Herentals.

“I think these tournaments are there for us to develop especially the upcoming players for example we have Leroy from Yadah who is still 18 and very talented and we have the striker from Herrentals (Majarira) and I think it is important to groom them in such competitions where there is less pressure.

“Most of the players we brought here don’t have regular game time in the Warriors AFCON squad and this is the time to see how good they are and this all being done to give the national coach a bigger selection base.

“You also infuse the youngsters with the experienced guys like Ovidy who is talented and can drive a team and this helps the inexperienced players with handling the new stage.

“We also have local players like Ocean and Liberty Chakoroma whose experience will be useful in such games and especially as we also look ahead at the upcoming CHAN assignments, which are for local players only,’’ Chidzambwa said.

None of the Warriors’ Group B opponents have won this competition before but Chidzambwa insists that should not be reason to look down on the Mambas and the Indian Ocean island pair of Madagascar and Seychelles.

“Records do not really count in football these days. There are not small teams anymore and one just needs to look at how much Swaziland have improved and they almost qualified for the last Nations Cup and they have been positing some good results.

“We just have to avoid being complacent and apply the same fighting spirit in every game,’’ Chidzambwa said.

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