Mighty Warriors return home

By Grace Chingoma

Mighty Warriors coach Shadreck Mlauzi believes his team would have done better had they been given good preparations ahead of the 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

The team ended their campaign with a 0-2 defeat at the hands of the Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon on Friday.

They are expected home today.

“The key lesson that we’ve learnt, as always, is that everything comes down to thoroughness of preparations,” said Mlauzi.

“You can’t short-circuit preparations for a tournament.

“The squad assembled for final camp a week before we came for this tournament, and that’s not good enough. It’s only the team that has the best physical qualities which eventually wins.”

The players, too, must be taken to task for their poor showing. While there is no shame in drawing with South Africa or losing to Cameroon, defeat against lightweights Egypt was hard to stomach.

It could have been a controversial loss but the Mighty Warriors should have wrapped the game long before that diabolical call when their late goal was disallowed.

Some of the players appear to have reached the end of their careers and, without the services of striker Rudo Neshamba, Zimbabwe were blunt upfront as they wasted a lot of chances.

Mlauzi cited the absence of a vibrant domestic league for this stagnation.

“It’s a reflection of the structures that we have back home,” he lamented.

“Do we have a vibrant league structure? Football has no short-cut; it’s about having the right systems in place. You’ve got to have under-15, under-17 and under-20 teams all playing and getting exposed to international competition playing in FIFA competitions,” said Mlauzi.

The Mighty Warriors were making a return to the tournament following an 11-year absence. The Herald