Zimpapers Logo

Harare Bureau
FORMER Warriors coach Sunday “Mhofu” Chidzambwa says while a keen interest is on who will be Zimbabwe opponents when the Africa Cup of Nations draw is held this afternoon in Libreville, our game plan is very vital if we are to progress to the next round for the first time.

The Warriors, together with other 15 teams will go into the hat today to determine which teams will play which teams in the group stages.

The draw will be held at 2pm local time and Warriors team manager Sharif Mussa will represent the country at the draw.

Group A will be based in the Gabonese capital, Libreville, while Group B will be in Franceville, Group C in Oyem with Port Gentil hosting the teams in Group D.

The teams have already been slotted into pots basing on their performance in the previous Afcon qualifiers and the Warriors are in Pot 4 alongside other continent minnows thus Togo, Uganda and debutants Guinea Bissau.

But yesterday, Chidzambwa the first coach to take Warriors to the Promised Land when the Warriors qualified for the maiden edition in Tunisia in 2004, said there is no need to despair over what the draw will produce, group of death or similar jargon which is always related with draw reactions, he believes what is important is to aim to win or draw in our first match.

“We all qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations and this means all the 16 teams going into the hat deserve to be at the tournament.

“So whatever group we are put in, we need to win the first match. We must aim to win the first game or draw then we can fancy our chances of progressing to the next round. We must cultivate that mentality in our players even before we board a plane to go to the Afcon and then we will be assured of going to the next round.

“Football has evolved, small teams can now beat big teams at such tournaments but it all depends with the game strategy of your team.

“Whatever the opponent we get, we must try and beat them and in football it is possible.

“If you look at the two occasions we have been at the Afcon, we managed to win our last group match beating Algeria a powerhouse, then when the team went with Charles Mhlauri we managed to beat Ghana, another powerhouse, so I don’t think we are far off from these people but organisation, securing players in time and planning is everything when going for such a tournament,” said Chidzambwa.

Looking at all the teams that have been place into the four pots ahead of the draw there are no pushovers and Chidzambwa said it is important that the focus is on preparations rather than wish if we had avoided certain teams in the group stages.

“Pots or the outcome of the draw doesn’t matter much but how you apply yourselves at the tournament.

“If you look we finished top in our group and had Guinea qualified ahead of us they would have been placed in a better pot than pot four we are in.

So these rankings at times don’t mean much what matters is how a team will prepare for the tournament and how focused they are.

“The issues of bonuses, allowances need to be addressed here and not wait till we arrive in Gabon to start solving monetary issues,” said Chidzambwa.

The veteran gaffer said the Warriors have come of age and as the team goes for another Afcon sojourn a lot is expected from them unlike when they qualified for their first edition 12 years ago.

“Back then we were new in the tournament but we should graduate from that mentality we had and aim to do well in our first match with a view to progress.

“We are past the stage of losing with heavy score lines and we are going there to compete not add numbers.

“Look at our best player, Khama Billiat he is dominating in Africa and we have many players near Khama’s abilities around so I believe we can progress.

“What I have noticed in these tournaments is that players based in Europe when they are at Afcon they don’t play at their best maybe it is fear of injuries so there is no need to go there with a defeated mentality simply because maybe you don’t have players in prominent Europe leagues.

“Football is what happens in 90 minutes,” said Chidzambwa.