YOUNG Warriors coach, Mandla Mpofu has apologised following the Zimbabwe national Under-20 men’s football team debacle, where they lost to Zambia 5-1 in their opening match of the ongoing Cosafa championships in South Africa on Wednesday.
BY FORTUNE MBELE
Mpofu said his charges did not do anything right in the match and lacked co-ordination against a well-oiled Zambian side, which has been in camp since October.
“It was a dismal show and, as the technical team, we would like to apologise to the nation. I know people did not expect that we could lose by such a big margin,” he said. “We could have done better. Our boys lacked confidence playing on the big stage and we gave away soft goals. We lacked cohesion playing against a side that has been in camp for two months and are preparing for the Africa Under-20 finals in January. We only had seven days to prepare. But I don’t want to make excuses. It was not our day and we did not do anything right.”
Mpofu was yet to decide whether he would make changes to the team that played Zambia on Wednesday ahead of their match against Malawi at the same venue tonight.
Malawi will play Zambia on Sunday at Moruleng in the last match of Group B.
“We have to rise and beat Malawi. If we come second in the group, then we play the top team in Group B to make it to the semi-finals. It is a must-win against Malawi otherwise we are out of the tournament.”
Fredrick Dzenga, Barnabas Mususunje, Nqobile Ndlovu, Simbarashe Chimanikire and Bright Majamanda are some of the players who sat out in the Zambia match and could be summoned tonight.
