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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor

THE foreign-based contingent of Warriors are in town and their leadership has paid glowing tribute to ZIFA for overcoming difficult operating circumstances to arrange back-to-back friendly international matches for the team.Star Mamelodi Sundowns forward Khama Billiat and versatile player Bruce Kangwa, who is now playing in Tanzania, were the only two players still to join camp yesterday with team manager Sharif Mussa indicating they were due to fly into the country late last night.

A number of players were at the National Sports Stadium yesterday to cheer the Mighty Warriors in their friendly tie against Banyana Banyana.

Mussa believes the friendly matches have given coach Callisto Pasuwa an opportunity to assess more players before their African Cup of Nations training camp begins.

The home-based Warriors beat Zambia at the giant stadium last Saturday.

Now, most of the regular members of the Warriors will now take on Tanzania at the same venue on Sunday.

Zimbabwe are in a tough Group B at the 2017 tournament in Gabon in which they will face Algeria, Senegal and Tunisia.

But a number of pundits have backed the Warriors to cause upsets and argued that what the team needs is to ensure they are adequately prepared for the Nations Cup finals.

It is against this background that Mussa yesterday hailed ZIFA for arranging the warm-up matches despite the Association being saddled by financial problems.

“By arranging these games ZIFA have shown their commitment to the cause of our preparations even though they are operating in difficult circumstances,” said Mussa.

“They have tried on their part to ensure that all the players who were were called by the coach and who are available are all here.”

Mussa said every interactional friendly which the national team played was important to the coach and the players as there were a lot of factors such as continuous team-building, bonding and combinations which would always be considered.

He said the fact they had brought in the foreign-based stars for the Tanzania encounter did not in way devalue the match they played against Chipolopolo last weekend.

The Warriors team manager insisted that the local contingent who featured in the game against Zambia are “equally important to the national team’’ and dismissed the notion by some critics that the match may not have been of any value or benefit to Pasuwa and his technical crew.

“The Zambia game was definitely of big use to us and nine players from the squad that played on Saturday against Zambia took part in the qualifiers,” said Mussa.

“The Warriors are not just about foreign-based players, every player is important and in any case not all players are always available so to us these matches add value.”

Apart from striker Evans Rusike and defenders Costa Nhamoinesu and Blessing Moyo, Pasuwa had the bulk of his foreign troops at their morning session at Gate Highway before they resolved to go and support the Mighty Warriors later in the day.

Nhamoinesu’s Czech club Sparta Prague claimed the tall defender was injured and declined to release him for the Tanzania game.

It was the same excuse given by Maritzburg United over Moyo although indications are that both players were fit to feature for their country on Sunday with Rusike understood to be the only player down after suffering a knock.

And as fate would have it, Maritzburg United were yesterday forced to release Moyo but not to the Warriors as the former Dynamos and Harare City right back suffered a bereavement in his family and had to fly back home.

“Everybody is basically here with Bruce and Khama coming in later tonight. The good part is that these players have either been playing for their clubs or training and they are in good condition physically.

“So now they have to understand the coach’s philosophy as they are coming from different coaching philosophies and they just have to work on understanding what the national coach wants and that is one of the main reasons why it is always important to regularly come together so that even the combinations can be perfected on,’’ Mussa said.

He also welcomed the announcement by the Confederation of African Football that they had upped the stakes in the prize money for all competitions under the auspices of the continental body.

“No doubt it is good news wherever there is talk about money.

‘It’s always a morale-booster and now we have to build on the players confidence and stress to them that they must go out there and play for themselves and play for the country.

“Obviously, the association must now sit down with the squad and clarify all the issues pertaining to remuneration and avoid the kind of problems that we faced with the CHAN prize money for the 2014 and 2016 tournaments’’. England-based forward, Macauley Bonne, who is wanted by Pasuwa to play for the Warriors, scored for his club Colchester United in a Cup game on Tuesday which they won after edging former Premiership side Charlton Athletic in a penalty shoot-out.

Bonne struck his side’s equaliser with a bullet header before the match was decided through the penalty lottery.

Meanwhile, highly-rated teenage Zimbabwean forward Tristan Nydam this week signed a professional contract with English Championship side Ipswich. The box-to-box midfielder, who turned 17, was now eligible to sign a professional contract and put pen to paper on a two-year deal.

Nydam, who was born in Harare in November 1999 and did his primary education here before relocating to stay in England with his mother, has been attracting a wave of interest with the way he has been developing in the past few years.