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Yesterday, the world football governing body had reserved the day for international friendlies across the world, meaning clubs were obliged to release players for national duty.

National team coaches were therefore presented with an opportunity to field their strongest possible sides ahead of the competitive matches.

Zimbabwe are scheduled to host Angola in an African Nations Cup qualifier at Rufaro on 9 September and chances are high that Gumbo will not have fully assessed the players.

Even if Zifa get to find willing sparring partners before the match, it’s likely that Gumbo will not be able to get all the players in his possible line-up released by their clubs as the date would fall outside the Fifa dates.

Last week, Zimbabwe played Zambia in Ndola and both teams used largely developmental sides.

Zambia coach Herve Renard only used two foreign-based players while Gumbo had a locally assembled side.

Chipolopolo, who are the African champions, face the Ugandan cranes in their final qualifier and were yesterday in South Korea with their full strength squad for an international friendly.

Zambia lost 1-2 against South Korea, with their Switzerland-based forward Emmanuel Mayuka, who missed the tie against Zimbabwe, scoring.

Zimbabwe’s opponents, Angola, also made good use of yesterday’s slot as they engaged Mozambique, winning 2-0.

Kivuvo put the Angolans in the lead in the 49th minute before Gonclaves added the second goal in the 69th minute.

Former African champions Ghana played China to a 1-1 draw .

While the reality is that the Warriors failed to utilise the Fifa slot yesterday, Benedict “Grinder” Moyo, the Zifa board member in charge of competitions put on a brave face.

Moyo believes there was a communication mix-up which resulted in them not being enlightened about yesterday’s slot.

Moyo, who is also holding the development portfolio, said they had then rushed to engage Zambia in the low key friendly last week.

“Basically we had been made to understand that the 16 August date for international friendlies had been scrapped.

“We were informed that the matches had been cancelled and based on that we organised that game against Zambia.

“It was only later that we received information that the Fifa dates had been okayed but it was too late for us to find the resources and opponents.

“So whatever changes were made, the information did not reach us.

“Maybe Jonathan (Mashingaidze) knows better when the change was made,” said Moyo.

Moyo conceded that an international friendly was important for the Warriors ahead of the match against Angola.

“We will try to do something before the game.

“I am not promising anything yet but we should work on something. The game against Angola is a must-win encounter for us,” said Moyo.

Next week, Gumbo and his assistants are expected to brief Zifa on their plans ahead of the Angola match.

“The technical committee could be meeting next week.

“They are going to work out how best to approach this game,” said Moyo.

Moyo added that Zifa are hamstrung by limited resources and pleaded for government funding.