Warriors Gets Acid Test Ahead Of The World Cup Qualifiers
Zimbabwe Warriors Coach Zdravko Logarušić has been provided with a stern chance to make the final assessment of his squad ahead of the World cup qualifiers after pitted in a ‘tough’ group at this year’s edition of the Cosafa cup competition to be hosted in Nelson Mandela Bay from July 7- 18.
The Warriors who are the record six- time winners of the competition have been drawn in group C alongside giants Mozambique, COSAFA 2015 winner Namibia and west African country Senegal who are appearing as a guest nation at the competition, in a draw held on Thursday.
The quality in group C, which is considered ‘the group of Death’ on paper, will provide the Warriors players who haven’t had enough chance, a stern opportunity to prove themselves before Loga names his final World cup qualifiers squad selection for September, October and November against South Africa, Ghana and Ethiopia respectively.
Zimbabwe are without any plans of preparation friendly games and are hoping to use the COSAFA competition as their main preparation event ahead of the World cup qualifiers and the Africa cup of nations finals in Cameroon early next year therefore leaving them with no other better chance to make the selection, but the COSAFA.
Logarušić admitted that the COSAFA tournament will provide him with the opportunity to assess all the players who haven’t got enough chance in the past, before making his final selection for the World cup qualifiers and the Africa cup of nations.
“I need to see players which we did not see a lot since I have been here. Some of them didn’t have enough minutes to prove themselves; some of them were not in the first squad”, said Loga in a recent interview with The Sundaymail.
This is not the first time Zimbabwe have used the competition as a preparatory event, in 2018 Sunday Chidzambga took a full-strength Warriors squad to the same competition ahead of the Africa cup of nations tournament in Egypt with players like Knowledge Musona, Khama Billiat and Nyasha Munetsi featuring in the competition
Hosts South Africa are in group A alongside neighbours Lesotho, Botswana and Eswatini.
Defending champions Zambia will face Malawi, and the island nations of Madagascar and Comoros in Group B.
Only the top team in each group and the best placed runner-up will advance to the semifinals in what is a change in formation for the tournament this year.
The COSAFA Cup is making a comeback after the event was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 COSAFA CUP DRAW:
GROUP A
South Africa
Lesotho
Eswatini
Botswana
GROUP B
Zambia
Malawi
Madagascar
Comoros
GROUP C
Senegal
Zimbabwe
Mozambique
Namibia