Young Warriors request camp

Sport
THE Young Warriors technical team has requested for camp as they look to continue with preparations for a hectic period ahead.

THE Young Warriors technical team has requested for camp as they look to continue with preparations for a hectic period ahead.

HENRY MHARA SPORTS REPORTER

The Kalisto Pasuwa-coached side have two big assignments coming up at the start of next year, starting with the 2015 All-Africa Games qualifier, and the 2015 Democratic Republic of Congo Under-23 African Qualifiers, a competition which will culminate into the 2016 Rio Olympic finals.

Young Warriors head coach Kalisto Pasuwa
Young Warriors head coach Kalisto Pasuwa

The Young Warriors have been busy preparing for what appears to be tough assignments ahead. They have so far played friendly matches against Botswana, Swaziland and Morocco in the last few months, but it appears the technical team still wants more time with the squad.

Young Warriors team manager Patrick Mutesva yesterday told our sister paper NewsDay Sport that his technical team had proposed to the local football mother body Zifa for a camp before the end of the year.

“We have put up a request with Zifa because we want to get into camp at least in the festive season,” he said.

“That would depend on the resources, but we are hoping that the team can get together and prepare for the important assignments ahead.

“We have asked to have the locally-based players to get into camp and if resources permit, we would also want to have the foreign based around. These are very important matches that we should prepare well.”

Zimbabwe will face Swaziland in the first round of the All-Africa Games and the winner of this two-legged encounter will face West Africa giants Cameroon in the second and final qualifying round.

The first round matches would begin on the weekend of February 20 to 22 for the first leg before the reverse fixture two weeks later.

Young Warriors team manager Patrick Mutesva
Young Warriors team manager Patrick Mutesva

The second qualifier will be played on the weekend of March 22 to 24 and the winner of the Zimbabwe/Swaziland match will then travel to Yaoundé for the decisive reverse fixture on the weekend of April 10 to 12.

Caf has said all players participating in the preliminary and final tournament of the All-Africa Games shall be born on or after January 1 1993.

Zimbabwe were paired against Swaziland in the first stage of the 2015 DR Congo Under-23 African Championships.

If they manage to progress to the next stage, they will face neighbours South Africa before the third and final qualifying round where another West African giant Senegal lies in wait.

Third round winners proceed with hosts Democratic Republic of Congo to the December 5 to 19 2015 finals, from where the top-three finishers will automatically qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The qualifiers for the DR Congo tournament run from April to early August. Zifa has lined up a friendly match against Iran on December 19 although it is highly unlikely that it will materialise.