The Sunday Mail
MIGHTY WARRIORS coach, Shadreck Mlauzi, is worried about his team’s match fitness, less than three weeks before they get their maiden Olympic dance underway with a date against Germany.
Mlauzi’s charges will face the eight time European and two time world champions on August 3 followed by a date with Canada three days later.
They round up their group F fixtures against Australia on August 9.
Before that, they warm up for the Games with a friendly against China on July 29 in Brazil.
While optimistic that the team will make the best of their training camp currently underway at the Bindura University of Science Education, Mlauzi is a worried man.
“Fitness has been worrisome and you could see the problem even when we played the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers,” he said.
“You could see that the players are not exactly at the level where we want them to be, a level which will give them an advantage over our competition.
“Match fitness by nature is something that comes with playing regular competitive football but again it’s an area which we have been working very hard on in the time that we have been in camp and we are hopeful that by the time the tournament starts, we will be able to compete,” he said.
The Mighty Warriors’ situation has not been helped by the absence of a women’s football league.
The team is scheduled to fly to Rio on July 26 and Mlauzi said the Mighty Warriors are going to the Olympics a relaxed lot.
“Nobody is giving us a chance and we are happy going into the tournament like that,” he said.
“We are quite an ambitious group, we are young and are very demanding but at the same time we are setting ourselves realistic targets of trying at least to go beyond the group stages.
“We have proved before that we can get results against odds.”
The team’ preparations have been boosted by the availability of deadly gunslinger Rutendo “Madzimai” Makore who has been struggling with an ankle injury since January as well as 24-year-old Rudo Neshamba who missed Africa Women’s Cup of Nations qualifiers against Zambia in April.
Meanwhile, fans who watched the team’s training session at Trojan Mine on Thursday were happy to get an approving smile and thumbs up from Mlauzi after telling the coach that they will be visiting local sports betting shops to bet on a Zimbabwe win against Germany.
Last night, a Mighty Warriors win was paying $23 for every dollar!
