NATIONAL Under-23 coach Kalisto Pasuwa has dropped two overaged players and demanded more training camps.
BY MICHAEL MADYIRA
The Young Warriors squad that fell 2-1 to Morocco last Sunday had two players who are not eligible for the 2016 Olympic Games.
According to Fifa, a player should be born on or after January 1 1993 to compete at the Olympics and the cut-off date has claimed the scalp of CAPS United midfielder Charles Mukanhairi and Harare City’s Takudzwa Chimwemwe who was born on October 26 1992.
“I realised from the passports of two players that they do not meet the required age. We need to rectify that by working with the correct age group before we do more preparations,” said Pasuwa.
The Morocco trip was Pasuwa’s first assignment with the Young Warriors after missing friendlies against Botswana and Swaziland in September and October respectively.
All the three friendlies played so far have seen changes being made to the team while trying out combinations.
Foreign-based players were included in the squad that travelled to Morocco while names of Nqobizitha Masuku, Walter Musona, Wisdom Mutasa and goalkeeper Tonderayi Mateyaunga were dropped Pasuwa’s side is expected to play Iran in Johannesburg next month in another warm-up game, but the coach has only conducted three training sessions with the team so far.
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Before leaving for Morocco, the Under-23s trained only once before working out twice in the North African country.
“Having seen three quarters of the guys playing, I feel things are coming up together,” said Pasuwa.
“But we need to talk of training first and then see how we fare against other teams. We need more days to train with these players. Training with them will help us see their weaknesses and strengths and as coaches, give us a good idea of players as individuals, like what we did when we were preparing for Chan.
“I am sure if we are given a month and a half in camp with the guys we can come up with a compact side. We need to see all the guys together.”
Pasuwa could be taking a leaf from Zambia who have monthly training camps with local players.
Zimbabwe is set to play Swaziland next February in a two-legged first round of the All-Africa-Games qualifiers before meeting Cameroon in the event they proceed past that stage. They again face Swaziland three months later for the African Under-23 Championship qualifiers.
Getting past the Swaziland hurdle will see them meeting South Africa in the second round.
A win over South Africa sets them up a date with Senegal in the final qualifying round.
The top four teams at the Under-23s Championship will automatically qualify to the Olympics scheduled for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
