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Dr Chiyangwa

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
FOUR-TIME champions Zimbabwe will once again come under the spotlight at this year’s COSAFA Castle Cup as the Warriors seek to re-assert themselves in a tournament they used to dominate over the years before falling down the pecking order.

The Warriors, who for the third successive year will have to negotiate their way from the preliminary round stages, were drawn in Group B along with Mozambique, Seychelles and Madagascar in the competition that will run in South Africa’s North West province from June 25 to July 9. Only the group winner will advance to the quarter-final where Swaziland will be waiting in ambush.

Warriors interim manager, Wellington Mpandare, acknowledged last night that the senior side needed to do better than fall at the group stage, which has been the story of their results in 2015 and 2016.

The Yadah Stars consultant was, however, happy that the COSAFA tournament would come before the Warriors begin their CHAN qualifiers against Namibia in July. “It is a good platform for us to use those matches to prepare. Of course, the coach might also want to have a look at one or two foreign-based players for use in the AFCON qualifiers,’’ Mpandare said.

“The challenge that we have with the so-called small nations is that they always have the same squad, whether they are playing in the AFCON qualifiers, the World Cup qualifiers, CHAN or COSAFA Castle Cup, yet for us we use different teams for each competition.

“When it comes to COSAFA and CHAN we use mostly our local players and at the start of each year the best players from our Premiership leave for other leagues in South Africa, Tanzania or Europe and we have to always re-assemble a squad of locals. The Warriors will begin their campaign with a date against the Mambas on June 26 in a match that will precede the battle of the islanders Madagascar against Seychelles on the same day.

A host of dignitaries, including COSAFA president Philip Chiyangwa, witnessed last night’s draw in South Africa.

According to COSAFA, 13 of the 14 regional block’s nations will take part this year, with only the Comoros Islands withdrawing their name from the draw.

They will be replaced by Tanzania’s Taifa Stars, who also competed in the inaugural tournament in 1997, as well as the 2015 edition. The top teams in each pool will advance to the knock-out stage, where they will be joined by the remaining six sides in the quarter-finals — holders South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia, Zambia and Lesotho.

South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland and Namibia, are the seeded teams in the quarter-finals which meant they could not be drawn against one another.

Draw: Group A: Angola, Malawi, Tanzania, Mauritius. Group B: Madagascar, Mozambique, Seychelles, Zimbabwe.Quarter-finals: Botswana v Zambia; Namibia v Lesotho, South Africa v Winner Group A; Swaziland v Winner Group B