Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
IT might be eight years since Zimbabwe’s Warriors last tasted Cosafa Castle Cup success, but the Warriors boast some proud records to savour in the 20-year history of the tournament. The Cosafa Castle Cup will be celebrating 20 years of existence this year since the tournament burst into life in 1997 with the Warriors, then under the late Ian Potterfield, falling 2-1 to Namibia in Windhoek.

Zimbabwe have powered their way into the elite club that has won four titles with South Africa and Zambia also reaching that mark while Angola have three and Namibia are the only other team to have won the competition.

The Warriors still hold on to some key records of the competition, eight years on since Sunday “Mhofu’’ Chidzambwa guided them to their fourth title with a convincing 3-0 win over Zambia at Rufaro.

Chidzambwa holds a personal record of having led Zimbabwe to two Cosafa Castle Cup successes in 2003 and 2009.

His younger brother Misheck had opened Zimbabwe’s account when guiding them to a comprehensive 6-0 aggregate victory over Lesotho in 2000 while Charles Mhlauri made it title number three for the Warriors in 2005.

Zimbabwe have wins in their Cosafa Castle Cup history, more than any other country and together with Zambia they have played the highest number of matches — 48 — each.

The Warriors still retain the record of being the tournament’s highest scorers with 79 goals. Angola became the first team to bag a hat-trick of titles and were given the first Cosafa trophy after their 2004 triumph over Zambia.

Chipolopolo became the first nation to win back-to-back titles in 1997 and 1998 while South Africa’s Bafana Bafana followed suit in 2007 and 2008.

As the Warriors return to the Cosafa Castle Cup trenches in Rustenberg next month, ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa has challenged the senior team to do better than their showing in the last two editions.

Chiyangwa, now the Cosafa president, believes it would be a huge embarrassment for the Warriors to bow down at the preliminary round stage for the third successive time.

“This competition started 20 years ago and it is still here today, growing bigger and bigger,” said Chiyangwa in a statement on the Cosafa website.

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