BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
The Namibia Football Association (NFA) has approached Zifa requesting an international friendly against the Warriors as they step up preparations for the 2020 African Nations Championships (Chan) finals set for Cameroon next month.
Although it is not clear if Zifa will take up the offer, sources at the local football governing body told Standardsport last week that the NFA had made enquiries about the availability of the Warriors.
Warriors coach Zdravko Logarusic recently expressed concern over his players’ lack of competitive match fitness, which has seen him resort to playing local league teams.
The Zimbabwe team has been preparing for the continental competition for almost two weeks now with Logarusic keeping the door open for players who were not part of the initial provisional squad.
Logarusic has since made a number of changes to the team bringing in players, who would have impressed him during the friendly games against local Premiership clubs.
Zimbabwe will be making a fifth appearance at the Chan finals and have been drawn in Group A with hosts Cameroon, Mali and Burkina Faso.
Namibia are one of the three countries from the Cosafa region, who have qualified for the continental championship reserved for players plying their trade in local leagues together with Zimbabwe and Zambia.
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The Tafel Lager Brave Warriors, who have been drawn in Group D alongside Guinea, Tanzania and Zambia, began training last week.
Interim head coach Bobby Samaria has called up a provisional squad of 31 players for the Chan safari. Samari has reportedly expressed the desire to play other teams from the region.
“The challenge is getting the players match fit and what compounds matters is we won’t be able to play regional teams as we did prior to Covid-19, unless those teams get tested for Covid-19 too,” he told the NFA website.
According to the NFA website, Samaria said they were looking at playing one of the neighbouring countries in a friendly match to gain the needed game time.
Samaria says the team will be hard at work to ensure that the players’ fitness is brought to the best possible level and have them in great shape within reasonable time.
