Zimbabwe to decide on Flames friendly

Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) is expected to decide today whether to proceed with the build-up match against the Flames later this month following the revised Cosafa Castle Cup draw that has pitted the two teams to clash in the quarter-finals.

One of Zimbabwe’s leading dailies, The Herald, on Tuesday quoted one of the Warriors assistant coaches, Lloyd Mutasa, describing the situation as tricky since they had already agreed on a friendly match on May 25 in Blantyre.

According to the paper, the issue of the friendly match was supposed to be tackled on Tuesday at a technical committee meeting chaired by Zimbabwe’s caretaker coach Klaus-Dieter Pagels.

“It is a fair draw, but it becomes tricky now that we play them in the friendly game and again at the Cosafa tournament.

“But I believe that everything is under control and I am sure we will discuss this with the coach when we meet.

“We are rebuilding our team and it is most likely that when we go there for the friendly match, we might not use the same players that will play at the Cosafa tournament,” said Mutasa.

He also said Warriors are looking forward to the tournament as defending champions and record four-time winners.

However, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda also agreed that the situation was a bit tricky.

“But the thing is that the friendly match was agreed before the draw of the Cosafa tournament. So, all I can say is that we will wait to hear from our Zimbabwean counterparts, nevertheless we remain optimistic that the friendly is on,” said Nyirenda.

Zimbabwe are the Cosafa Cup defending champions having won it the last time the regional showpiece was staged.

According to the draw that was conducted in Zambia’s capital Lusaka last Friday, Zimbabwe will start their title defence campaign against the Flames on July 13.