MIGHTY Warriors coach, Sithethelwe Sibanda has implored Zifa to organise more matches for the senior women’s football team following their defeat to South Africa in the final of the Cosafa Women’s Championship at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday.
BY FORTUNE MBELE
Sibanda, who took over from Shadreck Mlauzi, said playing in the local league was not enough for the players in the national team.
“Mental strength is developed from somewhere. These matches are not like any other match like playing for a club locally.
It is an international match, where a lot of mental strength is required. I would say, in future, getting our players involved in international matches would develop their mental strength and not just to prepare specifically for the tournament only and then from there we regroup again for the next tournament. Just keeping the players active and getting that international exposure will improve a lot of things, match fitness and stuff like that,” she said.
Sibanda said there were a lot of positives that came out of the Cosafa tournament.
“I think the players put up a splendid performance in the tournament. We might have struggled in some matches in the group stages, but as we progressed the players improved and developed those combinations that were not there. We had new players that were supposed to gel with the others, but I am happy they did very well. If we just keep the team together definitely in future assignments we are going to do well,” she said.
Rutendo Makore (pictured) was the toast of the tournament for Zimbabwe, scoring 10 goals, most of which came from assists from left-back, Sheila Makoto, while midfielder, Marjory Nyaumwe also had a good show despite missing the Malawi tie due to injury.
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The central defence of Lynette Mutokuto and Nobuhle Majika was sometimes jittery and were culpable for most of the goals that went past goalkeeper of the tournament, Chido Dzingirai.
The Mighty Warriors squeezed through to the semi-final where they clobbered Kenya 4-0 after becoming the best runners-up in the group stages.
They competed in Group A with Zambia, Malawi and Madagascar with Shepolopolo emerging the winners in that group. The women’s national team did not lose a game in the group stages beating Madagascar 4-0, drawing 1-1 with Zambia and 3-3 with Malawi before hammering Kenya in the semi-finals.
