Harare — THE Zimbabwe women's Under-20 national soccer team, which was in camp for the 2010 World Championships in Germany, has progressed to the final qualifying round without kicking a ball.

The team was scheduled to travel to East Africa and play Kenya this weekend in the second round.

But their opponents pulled out and this has left Zimbabwe with one round against Nigeria early next year for a place in Germany.

The first leg is on the weekend of January 11-13 in Harare before they travel a fortnight later for the second leg.

Nigeria also progressed without kicking a ball after Togo and Sierra Leone pulled out.

Zimbabwe are yet to kick a ball in the qualifying rounds as they received a bye in the preliminary round, first round, where they were scheduled to meet Mozambique who also withdrew.

And the Langton Giwa-coached team have been in camp preparing for the first leg match in Kenya but the East Africans have also pulled out indicating they have a lot on their plate as they are currently hosting the Cecafa tournament.

The vice-chairperson of the Zimbabwe Women's Soccer, Barbara Machawira, yesterday said the team was now looking for a friendly match to assess their strength.

"By continuously progressing to the next rounds we are not giving ourselves time to adequately prepare for the demanding and tougher rounds ahead so we are looking at playing a friendly match with neighbouring countries like South Africa, Botswana and Zambia and we will be able to assess the team's performance," said Machawira.

The U-20 team was last active in May last year when they featured in the Cosafa Championships in Angola but lost in the first round.