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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
ZIMBABWE Under-23 coach Callisto Pasuwa has expressed reservations about a proposed friendly match between his team and Swaziland arguing that it would not be in the best interests of the Young Warriors.
The Young Warriors are due to fly out to Mbabane on Monday morning for an international friendly against the Swaziland senior team at Somhlohlo next Wednesday, in what would be their second assignment inside three weeks.

Last week they were in Gaborone for a date against the Zebras, which was used to commemorate Botswana’s 48th Independence anniversary celebrations where they fell 1-0.

But it is the trip to Mbabane which Pasuwa has queried and the Dynamos coach yesterday presented his argument in a meeting with Zifa programmes officer Weston Mabhande.

Pasuwa, however, did not yield much success with Zifa insisting that he has to identify and name a squad that will go and do duty in Mbabane next Wednesday night as the association had already made a commitment to the National Football Association of Swaziland that they would be sending a team to fulfil the fixture.

Zimbabwe had initially been billed to play against Tanzania before the Taifa Stars reportedly opted to face Benin.

There are also some doubts that Pasuwa’s employers will release him for the trip given that his assistant ,Philemon Mutyakureva, is away in Bulawayo where he is attending a CAF B Licence course which began on Monday and ends next week.

Should Pasuwa travel to Mbabane, it would leave goalkeepers’ coach Tichaona Diya and juniors gaffer Hebert Maruwa in charge of the club’s preparations for their Premiership tie against Chapungu at home, a scenario the Dynamos management are understood to be uncomfortable with given the delicate stage of the championship race.

The Zimbabwe entourage to Swaziland will only fly back to Harare on Thursday night.

However, Pasuwa’s reservations on playing against Sihlangu are based on the fact that his Young Warriors have been drawn to play Swaziland Under-23 in the All-Africa Games qualifiers as well as the Under-23 African Championships qualifiers between February and April.

The three-time championship coach argued that it is Swaziland who stand to benefit more from playing against Zimbabwe and assessing his Young Warriors in action against Sihlangu than the visitors.

It’s also Pasuwa’s assertion that Zifa should have looked for different opponents who are not the same team that Zimbabwe would soon meet in the qualifiers.

“If we are to really prepare and learn at the same time, we cannot really do that against the same team that we are going to play against in the qualifiers. I don’t have problems with playing Morocco or Botswana.

“I would have been more comfortable with playing against any other opponents that plays a similar type of game to Swaziland or that would give us a real test before we play Swaziland and it must be remembered that there is not much time between now and February when we start the qualifiers.

“We may think that is this a friendly match, but Swaziland are serious and really want to use this match to have a closer look at our team and assess the kind of Under-23 players that we have so that they can plot against us accordingly.

“Remember we also played Tanzania in a friendly just a few months before we played them in the Nations Cup qualifiers and they became difficult for us.

“If I had my way we should not have played Swaziland at this stage, but Zifa are insisting that the game has to go ahead,’’ Pasuwa said.

The Dynamos coach will, however, also be hoping that he would not be caught in a club versus country row and that should he fail to go to Swaziland, that would not trigger conspiracy theories considering that his assistant Saul Chaminuka’s ZPC Kariba are also very much involved in the Premiership title chase.

“I hope there won’t be any problems. It is just that last week I was also not there after travelling to Egypt for the World Cup review. It would also not be fair for Saul (Chaminuka) to travel to Swaziland when his team is also involved in the league race . . . it doesn’t sound well,’’ Pasuwa said.

With six games to go before the end of the race, debutants ZPC Kariba are second and just two points behind Dynamos on the log table with the champions having amassed 46 points.

ZPC Kariba could go tops by the close of business on Sunday in the event that they beat Triangle United at Gwanzura on Saturday and Dynamos fall away to Buffaloes on their trip to Mutare the following day.

Another of Pasuwa’s assistants in the Under-23 set up — Hwange coach Nation Dube — is also in with an outside chance of claiming the championship as the coalminers are fifth with 37 points.

Hwange will be at home to How Mine at the Colliery on Sunday.

Dynamos, ZPC Kariba and Hwange are also aware of the threat posed by CAPS United and Highlanders who lock horns in a Battle of the Cities tie at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.