The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
LOCALLY-BASED stars have a great opportunity to prove themselves when the Zimbabwe Warriors clash with Cote d’Ivoire in an international friendly match in Abidjan tomorrow.
Kickoff for the match is 6pm Cote d’Ivoire time which is 4pm in Zimbabwe.
Several key players were left out of the trip by coach Kalisto Pasuwa which presents a number of local based stars who have been on the edge of being selected with a last immense possibility of impressing Pasuwa. The Warriors flew out to the West African nation in the early hours of yesterday. The team which went to Cote d’Ivoire is viewed as more of a second string side but the fixture will certainly officially kick-start the national team’s training camp with a host of senior team’s players who play outside the country expected to join camp from tomorrow.
While some critics might not see the benefit of taking a squad mainly made up of locally-based players for the game, for Pasuwa and his fringe players, it is a contest that will afford the coach with a final platform to assess how best he can deal with some of the grey areas he had taken note of during the road to Gabon. While it is clear that Pasuwa naturally has an idea on which players will make his 23-men squad that he will take to Gabon early next month, but the coach made it clear that he would also use the match against the Elephants to test the temperament of the players.
It is an assignment that could also give the coach a chance to assess the best role he could give to Sweden-based striker Tinotenda Kadewere. The player, who turns out for Djurgardens, will be the only foreign-based player in the game against the Ivorians. What is more significant for the player and his coach, it is a game which Pasuwa will use to see if the former Harare City man will be given a striking role in the squad for Gabon or whether he can play in a midfield attacking role.
Kadewere can play as a main striker or as an attacking midfielder. The 20-year-old forward is, however, not the only player who will be under scrutinty when the Warriors play in Abidjan.
Solid Dynamos central defender, Elisha Muroiwa, is racing against time to be fully fit for the demands of the Africa Cup of Nations. Muroiwa has struggled to shake off an injury he sustained while turning out for the Warriors during the Cosafa Castle Cup in Namibia in June. Although he played a few games for DeMbare towards the end of the season, Muroiwa would almost certainly have to put in more effort than the rest of the players in Pasuwa’s provisional 31-man squad if he is to retain his place as the coach’s first choice central defensive partner for Costa Nhamoinesu.
Another backline player who also has to make use of the game against the Ivorians to prove his determination is Chicken Inn’s Lawrence Mhlanga. It is from such friendly matches that players like the versatile Teenage Hadebe also swayed the coach that he has what it takes to go to Afcon.
How Mine goalkeeper Donovan Bernard is most likely to start in goal amid pointers that Pasuwa wants to give more players another test of character ahead of the Nations Cup. Bernard played a small part in the Warriors last two assignments, the international friendly games against Zambia and Tanzania at the National Sports Stadium last month.
Warriors squad to face Cote d’Ivoire in Abidjan
Goalkeepers: Tatenda Mukuruva, Donovan Bernard.
Defenders: Hardlife Zvirekwi, Ronald Pfumbidzai, Teenage Hadebe, Lawrence Mhlanga, Tendai Ndlovu, Elisha Muroiwa.
Midfielders: Farai Madhananga, Liberty Chakoroma, Ronald Chitiyo, Marshal Mudehwe, Talent Chawapiwa, Tafadzwa Kutinyu.
Strikers: Pritchard Mpelele, Walter Musona, Tinotenda Kadewere.
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