Young Warriors plunge into battle at 3.30pm

By Ray Munyoro
Young Warriors coach Tonderai Ndiraya believes his boys are in a good position to post a positive result when they face hosts South Africa in the COSAFA U-20 Championship at Wolfson Stadium in Port Elizabeth Thursday afternoon.

The match starts at 3.30pm.

Zimbabwe have been drawn in Group A, together with the hosts, Mozambique and Lesotho.

The tournament opener is between Mozambique and Lesotho.
Speaking ahead of the match, Ndiraya said he believes his troops will shine.
“We always go into each and every match with confidence otherwise there won’t be any reason for us to go there or to be at that tournament,” Ndiraya told Nhau Sport from South Africa.

“We didn’t have enough time to prepare but we are confident. The boys are here to compete and we will certainly do that in our opening match.”
Ndiraya said the battle of Limpopo has always been interesting over the years.

“The games between us have been interesting in the past so this one should be an interesting one as well,” he said, adding, “I’m not promising much but look we have a job to do.”

Ndiraya, who initially said they are targeting to reach the semi-finals, is now dreaming big.

“We go into every tournament to win it; we don’t go to add numbers. Our target is to qualify for the AFCON qualifiers and the tournament.
“So we are going there to fight and if we get into the final then we know that our chances of winning the trophy will be very high,” he said.
However, he admitted that it is not an easy task and will not put his boys under pressure.

“It won’t be easy. There’s no doubt we haven’t been playing football for the past nine months now and for us to really put ourselves under pressure will be unfair.

“And giving the boys pressure will be unfair so we will do the best we can but our target is to get into the final,” he said. Nhau/Indaba