The Zimbabwe Under-20 womens football national team is determined to overcome Mozambique in a second leg World Cup qualifier tomorrow despite being denied a training ground for their morning session yesterday.
The Young Mighty Warriors lead 4-0 from the first leg played at Rufaro Stadium two weeks ago. Head coach Langton Giwa remained confident that they would get a positive result when the two teams clash at Liga Muulmana Stadium tomorrow and will face Nigeria in the next round if they proceed.
The Young Mighty Warriors arrived in Mozambique on Wednesday night and were met by a Mozambique Football Association delegation, representatives from the Zimbabwean embassy and Zimbabwe liasion officer Stanley Mlilwana.
Their woes started when they were denied a training venue for their first training session yesterday.
However, they were forced to undergo the training session on a pavement outside Matola Village Lodge which is 20km from Maputo where the team is being accommodated.
Coach Giwa yesterday told NewsDay Sport soon after the training session that their main focus was on the game and nothing would deter them from getting a good result.
We want to increase our goal tally as we want to go for an early goal as early as the first five to 10 minutes so that we unsettle them.
These tactics of denying us a ground are not going to affect us. We were prepared for that and we told the players that it was meant to frustrate us psychologically, he said.
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We are looking forward to the game. If the players play according to instructions we will get more goals. The players must not be complacent because it is a totally new game to us.
Assistant coach Sithethelelwe Kwinji 15 Sibanda shared the same sentiments as her boss.
We have a 4-0 advantage but we are going out there to attack and probably get more goals. Some countries do not have hospitality but we know what to expect. The players are psyched up and they will just concentrate on getting a good result, she said.
The team will miss the services of chief striker Rufaro Machingura who was red-carded in the first leg at Rufaro a fortnight ago.
We would have loved to have Machingura in the team but we have to do without her. However, we have youngsters in the team who will want to fill that void, Sibanda said.
Zimbabwe Ambassador to Mozambique Retired Brigadier General Agrippah Mutambara and his team paid a courtesy call on the team at the lodge.
