Warriors will not benefit from Ivory Coast friendly

By The Standard | Dec. 24, 2016

It comes as a surprise that the “wise men” at the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) decided to go ahead with the international friendly match against the Elephants of the Ivory Coast despite the non-availability of most of the Warriors’ regular players.

insidesport with MICHAEL KARIATI

It is a fact that a full Warriors squad would have benefitted greatly from the friendly by testing the West African environment, and playing a team drawn from some of the top clubs in Africa such as Asec Mimosas, Africa Sports and Stade d’Abidjan.

However, after realising that most of Zimbabwe’s regulars would not be available due to club commitments, Zifa should simply have called off the game to save for other uses the money earmarked for travelling to the West African country.

This game was supposed to have been part of the preparations for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals, but with most of the regular players not available, the match serves no purpose.

Only a few players that coach Kalisto Pasuwa is taking to Abidjan will make the team for Afcon finals. So when will the Afcon preparations take place? Zifa cannot say they are preparing for Chan because that tournament is way off in 2018. More so, some of the players would not be eligible as they would have either moved to foreign clubs or would have lost form.

All that the match will do is deprive the local players of the opportunity to relax and enjoy with their families, relatives and friends during the festive season — a period meant for camaraderie and fun.

Already, the national team coach has an idea of which 23 players he will be taking for the Nations Cup escapade and the game against the Elephants will not in any way swing his decision.

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By the way, the Confederation of African Football has given all Nations Cup finalists the deadline of December 31 to provide their final 23-member squads and so Pasuwa does not have the time to assess any more players — even during the game against Ivory Coast.

What we are certainly going to get from the coach is the trusted and predominantly foreign-based team that helped the Warriors qualify for their third Afcon finals.

In some football leagues in Europe, the Christmas and the New Year period is the busiest period of the season and Zifa should have done their checks or spoken to the players themselves on their schedules before organising the game against the Elephants.

For example, Knowledge Musona’s Belgian club KV Oostende is on Monday playing a crucial league game against Eupen and there is no way the club would have allowed their top striker to leave for a friendly match at the expense of league points.

Musona is also recovering from injury.

As serious football leaders, Zifa should have by now asked Pasuwa to forward to them the team he is taking to Gabon and concentrate more on those players instead of an enlarged provisional squad.

The Afcon always carries with it the politics of club versus country and clubs use all sorts of tricks to hang onto their players during the continental tournament.

Having the final team ready in time would give Zifa the opportunity to know which players have what problems to allow them to be resolved while there is still time.

The football controlling body has promised friendly matches for the Warriors against Cameroon, Libya and Mali before January 14 when the tournament roars into life, and that promise should be fulfilled.

The Afcon finals are only three weeks away and there is no room for mistakes. From the outset, matches against Algeria, Senegal and Tunisia look difficult, but in reality, the Warriors can overcome the North and West Africans. Only if the right things are done.

Happy Christmas

It surely has been 12 months of a tough but exciting sporting programmes and it is now time to relax. We wish you all a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

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