Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Petros Kausiyo
6 September 2008
Harare — YOUNG Warriors coach Rodwell Dhlakama wants his teenagers to play with more attacking flair when they meet Reunion in an African Under-17 Championships first round, second leg qualifier in St Denis.
Zimbabwe will fly out to the Indian Ocean Island early next week carrying a seemingly healthy 2-0 lead they achieved at Gwanzura last Friday through a first half brace by captain Archieford Gutu.
The match in St Denis is pencilled for next Friday night.
But Dhlakama, eager to guide the Young Warriors to the African Championships finals scheduled for Algeria next year, said they would not go to Reunion to try and defend their first leg lead.
The winner of the Zimbabwe against Reunion match will go on to face the winner between Angola and Botswana.
Angola and Botswana had their first round, first leg match postponed by the Confederation of African Football to the weekend of September 12-14.
But it is the Reunion hurdle that the Young Warriors are focusing on at the moment and Dhlakama said it was imperative that they play an attacking game in St Denis to avoid putting themselves "under unnecessary pressure".
"We are not going to sit back and defend our 2-0 lead, that could give them a chance to come back into the game and it will put us under unnecessary pressure.
"We are actually going to try and win that game convincingly. It is actually them who should have a lot of defending to do in order to keep the scoreline respectable.
"We have been working on our shortcomings especially in front of goal because in the first leg we created a lot of chances that we did not put away. We also have a proud record that we want to safeguard jealously," said Dhlakama.
He said although he was not yet looking beyond their second leg clash with Reunion, he would have no problems meeting either Angola or Botswana.
"We are not looking beyond the first round just yet because we want to clear the Reunion hurdle but should we progress, we will be prepared to meet any of Angola or Botswana.
"We have played both teams before so we really cannot choose who between them we would prefer to play."
The Young Warriors often lacked fluidity in their game but Dhlakama, who yesterday named his final 17 players for the trip to Reunion, defended the teenagers, arguing that the changes he made to his side meant some of their flair would be affected.
"We had introduced some new players and some of them didn't have their travel documents and spent the better part of the week working on obtaining them, which obviously affected their training.
"Now that it has been sorted out, they have had more time to train together as a team and there has been an improvement.
"We have also noticed that local fans do not have patience with the young players and maybe that is why they play better football away from home. I think that is one area we need to improve on as a country and avoid exerting too much pressure even on young players."
Zimbabwe, then under the guidance of Madinda Ndlovu, last took part at the African Championships in Gambia in 2005 after they came in as a late replacement for the disqualified Tanzania.
Team:
Goalkeepers: Seaba Maponga, Tonderai Mateyaunga
Defenders: Elroy Masunda, Taurai Charakupa, Knowledge Machona, Proud Zireni, Temptation Chiungwa, Morris Kadzola,
Midfielders: Humphrey Murongazvombo, Abraham Murembu, Brian Katsaruware, Anthony Hlekisana, Paul Nyikadzino, Archiford Gutu (captain)
Strikers: Maxwell Manyadze, Munyaradzi Chiwara, Ray Lunga, Charlton Mashumba
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