WARRIORS coach Kalisto Pasuwa has dropped Dynamos midfielder Ronald Chitiyo and the Caps United duo of Hardlife Zvirekwi and Justice Jangano for failing to turn up for camp on time.
BY SAKHELENI NXUMALO
The Warriors are preparing to face Lesotho in an African Nations Championships (Chan) football encounter at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday.
Speaking to journalists after the national team’s morning training session at White City Stadium yesterday, Pasuwa said they had decided to take drastic action against the trio because it was not the first time that Chitiyo and Zvirekwi had responded late to national team call ups.
“We called them (Chitiyo and Zvirekwi) for the Comoros game and they were the last to report for duty. They did the same again when we called them for the Afcon tie (against Guinea) and we felt their attitude is negative and it could rub off onto the younger players, so they should not be part of the set up until they want to play for the national team,” he said.
The Warriors coach said Dynamos defender Ocean Mushure and the Hwange duo of Takabva Mawaya and Pritchard Mpelele, who missed Tuesday’s morning training session, had later that day joined the squad for the afternoon training session at Barbourfields Stadium.
Zvirekwi, Chitiyo and Jangano only reported for duty yesterday morning and were duly sent back home by the Warriors technical team.
Caps United defender Stephen Makatuka has since been roped in to the squad to replace the two defenders, but the Warriors technical team decided against bringing in someone to replace Chitiyo, as they felt they had enough players that can play in central midfield.
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Injuries continue to be a worry for the Warriors though, as team captain Danny “Deco” Phiri of Chicken Inn and Highlanders defender Teenage Hadebe sat out yesterday’s morning training session.
Phiri picked up an ankle injury in Chicken Inn’s league match against How Mine and only trained for 10 minutes before limping off, while Hadebe has a knee problem and Pasuwa said they could be forced to call another defender in the event he does not recover on time.
Most of Tuesday’s morning session was concentrated on ball possession drills and Pasuwa said this was because they expected Lesotho to sit back and protect their goal since they will be playing away.
“In modern football play starts from the back and when you play a team that is playing away from home they usually won’t have the numbers in your penalty box so we need to keep possession and force them to come to us so that we can create the spaces to exploit,” he said.
Warriors squad in camp Takabva Mawaya, Donovan Bernard, Elvis Chipezeze, Blessing Moyo, Lawrence Mhlanga, Stephen Makatuka, Ocean Mushure, Raphael Kutinyu, Nqobizitha Masuku, Marshal Mudehwe, Roderick Mutuma, Malvin Gaki, Tichaona Chipunza, Pritchard Mpelele, Knox Mutizwa, Brian Muzondiwa, Edmore Chirambadare, Raphael Manuvire, Danny Phiri and Teenage Hadebe, Bruce Kangwa.
