The Sunday Mail
Langton Nyakwenda
MIGHTY WARRIORS chief striker Rudo Neshamba (Pictured) is glad to be back in the mix and promises that the senior women’s national football team is in the mood to surprise at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The 24-year-old star missed the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations qualifiers with a knee injury but has fully recovered and was named in the Olympic squad last Wednesday.
Neshamba is now expected to lead the Mighty Warriors strike force when Zimbabwe clash with world number two Germany in their group opener at Corinthians Arena on August 3.
Germany are odds-on favourites to win the match, but Neshamba is ready to help Zimbabwe make a mockery of those odds.
“I am focused, both physically and mentally. I am raring to go,” said a confident Neshamba at the Olympic send-off banquet in Harare Wednesday night. “There is nothing (Germany) can do that we cannot do. We have been watching videos of their games and I am sure we can match them.”
Zimbabwe are ranked 93rd in the world, and they will also play emerging powerhouse Australia and then Canada, who are 10th on the current FIFA world rankings, in a tough Group F.
The Mighty Warriors play Canada in their second Group F game on August 6, before completing the stage with a date against world number five Australia at Forte Nova Arena three days later.
That doesn’t scare Neshamba, the slayer of Cameroon who scored two goals when the Mighty Warriors stunned the continent’s third-best women’s football nation in the last qualifying round of the 2016 Olympic Games.
“It is going to be a tall order playing former world champions and some of the top-ranked nations, but they should under rate us at their own peril,” she declared. “I am sure all the teams will regard us as the underdogs and by that token they will come underrating us but let me warn that we are not going there as pushovers.”
The Mighty Warriors head into the Olympic Games on the back of unfinished money talks.
National football mother body Zifa still owe the girls thousands of US dollars in outstanding bonuses for both the Olympics and AFWCON qualification.
However, skipper Felistas “Figo” Muzongondi says the rare opportunity to rub shoulders with the world’s best is invaluable.
“Everyone in camp is psyched up, we have told each other the importance of this tournament and we know this is beyond money. If we go out there and shine, chances are high two or three players from our group can get lucrative foreign contracts,” she said.
The Mwenezana midfielder – an experienced squad member along with other veterans Nobuhle Majika, Rutendo Makore and Marjory Nyaumwe – also believes the troops can tear the form book to shreds in Brazil.
“When we played Cameroon in the Olympic qualifiers, they were then champions of Africa and had also played at the World Cup so nobody gave us a chance; but what happened? We stunned them.
“We are not going to Rio to fulfill fixtures but to compete, we don’t listen to negative vibes, we only care about positives.To the nation, I say keep on supporting the girl child,” said the skipper.
Mighty Warriors
Chido Dzingirai, Lindiwe Magwede, Kudakwashe Basopo, Eunice Chibanda, Erina Jeke, Daisy Kaitano, Rejoice Kapfumvuti, Rutendo Makore, Sheila Makoto, Talent Mandaza, Emmaculate Msipa, Lynett Mutokuto, Felistas Muzongondi, Rudo Neshamba, Marjory Nyaumwe, Samkeliswe Zulu, Mavis Chirandu, Nobuhle Majika
