WARRIORS coach Ian Gorowa is confident his charges will do well at the African Nations Championships (Chan) finals as they prepare to face Morocco in the opening match at the Athlone Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday.
BY WELLINGTON TONI SPORTS EDITOR
The Warriors beat Gabon 2-0 on Tuesday in an international friendly match at the Rand Stadium in Johannesburg and this, according to Gorowa, gives the boys “some confidence” going into the first game.
Donald Ngoma and Milton Ncube scored in Tuesday’s win.
Today, they play Ajax Cape Town at Ikamva to wind up their preparations. The Warriors arrived in the Mother City at 1330hrs yesterday afternoon.
“It was a very good performance (against Gabon) and their coach was even saying our team is very strong. He was really impressed.
“I think it has all to do with the preparations that we put in place for these finals. Results at this stage do not matter, but just the performance. It gives you that extra confident going into the first match,” Gorowa told NewsDay Sport from Cape Town yesterday afternoon.
The Warriors open their campaign against Morocco on Sunday and this is the match that Gorowa prefers to talk about.
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“It’s a tough match like I have always said, but we are also ready. It all depends on how we apply ourselves. I have confidence in these boys, but we need to take it one game at a time and really focus on the first game, but I am confident the boys can do something,” the former Mamelodi Sundowns coach said.
After the opening match on Sunday, the Warriors will have four days to prepare for their second assignment against Uganda. The last game will arrive on January 20.
In the last two editions in Ivory Coast and Sudan, the national team failed to reach the knockout phase of the competition and will be looking to go one step better this time around.
In Ivory Coast, they finished the group stages with three draws, but on Sunday, they managed to beat Ghana in the group stages before losing the other two matches and most crucially, the decisive match against South Africa.
On today’s match against Ajax Cape Town, where he was a former assistant coach, he said: “We just want to give everybody a run before the tournament begins.” In the match against Gabon, Gorowa used George Chigova, Patson Jaure, Ncube, Eric Chipeta, Hardlife Zvirekwi, Ali Sadiki, Pasca Manhanga, Danny Phiri, Kuda Mahachi, Simba Sithole and Ngoma.
Felix Chindungwe, Oscar Machapa, Simba Sithole of How Mine, Charles Sibanda, Nelson Maziwisa and Peter Moyo also came in as substitutes.
Today’s match might see the likes of Munyaradzi Diya, Tafadzwa Dube, Masimba Mambare, Augustine Mbara, Tawanda Muparati and Themba Ndlovu enjoying some game time. Meanwhile, Uganda FA president Moses Magogo has questioned why his government
has not come out to help the national football team head of the 2014 African Nations Championship.
“It is very frustrating that the national team is going to represent the whole country and yet government cannot release a penny for them. All the other 15 teams that will take part in the Chan tournament are supported by their governments and it’s only the Uganda FA that has to look around for money to cater for the team,” a sad Magogo said in an interview with MTNFootball.com. The president made it clear that the FA does not have enough money to run association football without government support. “It is high time government realised that the national football team is big and they must come and support it. We can run football together with sponsors and the government,” he added.
