The Zimbabwe national women football team has promised to lift the country’s flag high by winning a gold medal at the coming All-Africa Games finals which kick off in Maputo, Mozambique, next Saturday.
The Mighty Warriors, who are still basking in the glory of being crowned the champions of Southern Africa after winning the Cosafa Women Championships this year, are one of the country’s medal hopefuls at the games.
The Rosemary Mugadza-coached side will kick off their gold hunt on September 5 with a tricky fixture against South Africa’s Banyana Banyana, ironically the team they beat in the Cosafa finals.
Zimbabwe, who are in Group B, arguably the “group of death”, will also meet Africa’s second best-ranked team Ghana and Tanzania who they also beat in the semi-finals of the Cosafa Women Championships.
Two teams from the two groups will qualify for the second round.
Speaking at Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s home in Chisipite on Tuesday where the team had gone to pay condolences following the death of her husband, Retired General Solomon Mujuru in a mysterious fire last week, assistant coach Yohanne Chikaola said his team would go for gold at the games.
“The team has shown tremendous improvement in the last few months. No one gave us a chance in the Cosafa, but we showed a great fighting spirit and we managed to conquer.
“We are very mindful of the fact the competition will be a bit tougher in Mozambique, but we have prepared really well and I’m confident we will win,” said Chikaola.
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Chikaola said his team’s recent tour of Germany where they played top German sides has put it in good mental and physical condition ahead of the Maputo games.
“If we managed to beat big teams that play in the Germany Bundesliga, what will stop us from beating teams from Africa? We encountered teams who were technically and physically better than most of these African countries, but we managed to stand our ground.
“I can tell you that not many African countries would have managed a result against those German teams, which gives us more confidence that we are now at higher level in terms of our physical fitness, technical awareness and mental strength. The Germany trip helped us a lot,” added Chikaola.
