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Zimbabwe/South Africa: Warriors Get Fair Draw
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 Published by the government of Zimbabwe |
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The Herald (Harare)
26 November 2007
Posted to the web 26 November 2007
Petros Kausiyo
Harare
Zimbabwe's Warriors were yesterday handed a fair draw in their qualification bid for a place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
At a draw for the preliminary rounds conducted in Durban, South Africa, the Warriors, ranked 24th on the continent were drawn in Group Two where they were pitted against group seeds Guinea, Southern African rivals Namibia and Kenya.
The matches will be played on a home and away basis.
Fading African giants Guinea, who last played against the Warriors during the "Dream Team" era in the early 1990s, will on current Fifa ratings pose the greatest threat to the Warriors bid to advance to the second and final qualifying stage for a place at the global soccer showcase scheduled for South Africa in 2010.
The Warriors, still without a substantive coach, were one of 170 countries at the draw, which was conducted along continental lines with African teams being put in 12 groups. According to a format designed by world soccer governing Fifa, each of the group winners and the eight best runners up will advance to a second qualification round where they would be put into five groups of four.
The qualification campaigns during which teams from Africa, Europe, South America, Oceania and Asia will fight for 31 places at the World Cup is expected to run from early next year until November 2009.
Only hosts South Africa are guaranteed a place at the quadrennial soccer showpiece for which more than 800 qualifying matches will be played across the world. For the African teams, the World Cup qualifiers will also serve as the qualification programme for the Nations Cup in Angola, which will precede the World Cup. But after failing to make it to the 2008 Nations Cup in Ghana following a forgettable campaign in which they only won once (3-1) over Malawi in a dead rubber, the Warriors and their legion of fans had been anxiously awaiting the outcome of yesterday's draw in Durban.
The win over Malawi also helped the Warriors who had fallen sharply on the Fifa World rankings to claw their way back into the top 100, a feat that also helped them avoid Africa's powerhouses in yesterday's draw.
However, Zifa chairman Wellington Nyatanga, who would also need to move with speed to appoint a coach, would be relieved that the preliminary round draw virtually has one "tough" opponent to deal with - Guinea. Nyatanga and his board could also draw satisfaction from the fact that the Warriors avoided having to fly to complicated destinations in the preliminary round such as Eritrea, Mauritania, Cape Verde Islands and Djibouti.
The Warriors, currently under the caretaker guidance of their former captain and Monomotapa coach Norman Mapeza, would have to do well against the Harambee Stars of Kenya, the Brave Warriors of Namibia and Guinea if they are entertaining any hopes of going into the hat again for the second round draw of Africa's best 20 teams.
It is from that second round of qualifiers that each of the five group winners would qualify for the 2010 World cup in South Africa.
Full Africa Draw:
South Africa as hosts are already qualified
Group 1
Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Tanzania, Mauritius
Group 2
Guinea, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya
Group 3
Angola, Benin, Uganda, Niger
Group 4
Nigeria, South Africa (For African Nations qualifiers only), Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone
Group 5
Ghana, Libya, Gabon, Lesotho
Group 6
Senegal, Algeria, Liberia, Gambia
Group 7
Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Botswana, Madagascar
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Group 8
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For the first time Zimbabwe have been handed a chance to qualify for the world cup on a gold plate not silver but gold plate.If we start preparations now not next year but now,we stand a grand chance without a shadow of doubt.
We need to get the players together now, talk to people like Benjani Maruwari who already have good contacts in europe, organise friendly matches against clubs in europe.
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