THE MIGHTY Warriors’ journey to the 2015 Canada Women’s World Cup finals begins this afternoon when they take on their Botswana counterparts at the Sir Seretse Khama Barracks Stadium. Kickoff will be at 4pm.
HENRY MHARA IN GABORONE
To reach that destination, the Rosemary Mugadza-coached side will have to navigate through the African Women Championships (AWC) qualifiers with today’s match being the first step in that direction.
If they sail past Botswana in a two-legged affair, whose second leg is set for Harare in a fortnight, the Mighty Warriors will meet the winner between Tanzania and Zambia in the second and final qualifying round for the AWC finals that will be hosted by Namibia this October.
The top three teams in Namibia will represent Africa at the World Cup next year.
If the truth can be told, this route is the easiest the Zimbabwe ladies team would ever get to qualify for a World Cup and if they blow it, there might be no other chance.
“The general feeling in the team is that we should qualify for the World Cup. The players know they are capable of doing that,” said Mugadza.
“Like every ambitious team we want to qualify for the biggest tournament and it is every player’s dream to play with the best. But we have to play Botswana first and we cannot look much into our past matches against them; that is now history.
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“This one is a new ball game together, but we have prepared well and we hope to get a good result. The most important thing is we should guard against complacency,” added Mugadza who is without regular strikers Rutendo Makore and Erina Jeke through injuries. New Botswana coach Mmoloki Masole said: “We are going to win. Whether good football or not but we are going to win the match. We will fight for our people and for the country,” said the man who has worked in the army before and is also the current coach for premier league side Giant Killers.
The hosts will be without their star Thuto Ramafifi who is out injured, but Masole believes he will cope without her.
Mugadza had not finalised her first 11 by midday yesterday as some players were complaining of knocks and fatigue after their long road trip from Harare to Gaborone.
However, she gave a probable line up with the hugely talented Mavis “Madam Chair” Chirandu (18) expected to be handed a berth in the first 11 in a competitive match.
“Mavis has matured a lot in the past few months and I think she is ready for the challenge now. She is starting tomorrow (today),” assured Mugadza. “We are still discussing on the final 11 because some players have knocks. “We will make the final decision after the last training session in the evening. What we have now is a probable line-up but even if we don’t make any adjustment to it I think its still good enough to beat Botswana,” added Mugadza.
Probable X1: C Dzingirai, N Majika, R Mutyavaviri, M Musasa, P Mujuru, T Mandaza, M Nyaumwe, F Muzongondi, M Chirandu, V Bepete, R Neshamba.
