Zimbabwe senior women’s team coach Shadreck Mlauzi has said “we seek to achieve as a team, we are carrying the responsibility of the nation” ahead of the COSAFA Women’s Championship set for South Africa from 4-15 October.
Mlauzi said this during the Mighty Warriors’ training session on Monday as preparations for the prestiguous regional competition intensified.
“We are carrying the responsibility of the nation, as such we want to about the task at hand with that in mind.
“The nation fully understands where we are coming from [FIFA ban], but we dont forget about what we are seeking to achieve as a team.
“Strategic planning is very important; short, medium and long term goals of the team.
“We want to remain extremely competitive in this (COSAFA) competition. We want to give all the players an opportunity to play for the national team since we are coming from a disfunctional junior syst where our young Mighty Warriors have not been given opportunities to play in their respective age group tournaments.
Mlauzi also added that from 24 players who are in camp, 21-members will be selected to travel to South Africa on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe are in group C with Lesotho, Namibia and Botswana.
They will kick start their tournament against Lesotho on 6 October followed by Namibia on 9 October and complete their group stages games versus Botswana on the 11th of October 2023.
In the previous four COSAFA Women’s Championships, the Mighty Warriors won the competition in 2011 and they reached the final once in 2017.
In 2018, 2020 and 2021 they were knocked out in the group stages while in 2019 they finished third.