Zimbabwe Warriors to play Ghana ?

ZIMBABWE's Warriors are not taking any chances ahead of their big 2006 World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualifier against Nigeria on September 5 and want to play two high-profile warm-up matches before that game.

The Warriors, who are in a tough Group Four that also includes Algeria, Angola, Gabon and Rwanda, are expected to play the duo of former African champions Ghana and Egypt before they date the Super Eagles at the National Sports Stadium.

Jonathan Mashingaidze, acting Zifa chief executive, said yesterday the association, which in the past has been blamed for failing to adequately prepare the national teams, had put up an ambitious programme of friendlies for the Warriors.

Mashingaidze said Zifa wanted the Warriors to play a number of friendly internationals whenever breaks occurred throughout their demanding World Cup and African Cup of Nations campaign which is expected to end with another crunch encounter against Nigeria in Abuja on October 8 next year.

"We are currently engaging the Ghana and Egypt football associations to finalise on the dates of the matches.

"The match against Egypt is a reciprocal one as our earlier agreement with them meant that we would play them in Cairo and here,** said Mashingaidze.

The Pharaohs, who are in an equally tough Group Three with Cameroon, Cote d*Ivoire, Libya, Benin and Sudan, beat the Warriors 2-0 in the two teams* last meeting in a friendly in Cairo on May 24.

In the last competitive match between the two sides at the African Cup of Nations finals in Tunisia in February, the Pharaohs battled from behind to snatch a 2-1 win over the Warriors in a Group C game.

Ghana and Egypt have each won the Nations Cup on four occasions before with the Black Stars* last success coming on the artificial pitches of Libya in 1982 while the Pharaohs* last triumph was in Burkina Faso in 1998.

The two teams have, however, remained competitive outfits despite their failure to win the Nations Cup in recent years, often having a major say in the destiny of the biennial continental soccer showpiece.

Ghana, who are second on the Group Two that also has leaders South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cape Verde, Uganda and Burkina Faso, beat the Warriors 2-1 on their last visit to Harare in a 2002 African Cup of Nations penultimate qualifier.

Mashingaidze said they were optimistic that the calibre of the two teams would help provide the Warriors with the kind of preparations they need, "not just for Nigeria but Angola as well**.

After hosting Nigeria on September 5, the Warriors are expected to travel to Luanda for a cagey Group Four assignment against the Angolans at the Citadela Stadium.

Zifa, Mashingaidze also said, were considering requests from the DRC and Botswana, who have indicated their willingness to play the Warriors at home and away.

"The DRC, through a government to government agreement, put a request to play us, but we are still to factor in the conducive dates.

"Time and funds permitting we would want to have a number of international friendlies for the team.

"In fact, the ambitious programme that we have is not only looking at the Nigeria and Angola matches but the whole campaign as well as the Women*s and junior national teams.

"We also want to establish some firm memorandum of understandings with a number of African and European countries for possible matches before the end of next year which we hope will give our boys the kind of exposure and experience they need,** said Mashingaidze.

Warriors* coach Rahman Gumbo said he would be happy to engage Ghana and Egypt as part of his team*s preparations and was also hopeful his charges would benefit from playing the two seasoned campaigners.

Interestingly, Gumbo sat on the bench as an assistant to the Marimo brothers, Misheck and Sunday, during the Warriors* last encounters against Ghana and Egypt.

"We would want to make use of the two friendlies to rectify some of our weak areas and, of course, there is also the Cosafa tournament, which we can use as part of our preparations,** said Gumbo.

Defending champions Zimbabwe and Mozambique have already secured their places in the Cosafa Castle Cup semi-finals.

But they will have to wait a little longer before they know who their semi-final opponents are as the two other quarter-final matches pitting Zambia against Mauritius and Angola against Botswana are still to be decided.

The draw for the semi-finals will be held at the end of the last quarter-final between Zambia and Mauritius in Lusaka on July 31 and the semi-finals will only take place after September 5.

The first semi-final will be played over the weekend of September 18-19 while the second semi-final will be staged during the first weekend of October.