The Warriors will begin their 2025 COSAFA Cup campaign on Wednesday evening with a match against Mauritius at the Free State Stadium in Mangaung (Bloemfontein), kicking off at 6 PM.
Zimbabwe has a proud history in the regional tournament, having won the COSAFA Cup six times—in 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2017, and 2018.
For this year’s edition, the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) has taken a developmental approach, fielding a squad largely made up of young players.
There was a late change to the squad announced last week, after it was discovered that Dynamos forward Vusa Ngwenya did not have the necessary travel documents. He was replaced by Scottland striker Nathan Mutasa.
The team is being led by national Under-20 coach Simon Marange, as senior team coach Michael Nees is currently in Morocco with the first team for high-profile friendlies against Burkina Faso and Niger.
Despite the youthful nature of the squad, Marange said Zimbabwe is in the tournament to compete, even as the primary focus remains on developing future talent. He said:
We have to compete to win. We’re still representing the nation, so there is that pressure that we’ve taken upon ourselves that we understand. I grew up watching Zimbabwe win COSAFA tournaments as well. Those were great times.
And it’s always been a tournament that we’ve done well in. So obviously, there’s a lot of responsibility on the young shoulders of these players.
Marange said the COSAFA Cup provides a valuable opportunity to prepare young players for future roles in the senior national team, while also emphasising that they must compete and perform in the present. He said:
This is one of the ways we’re trying to assist players to take those steps, and obviously looking at the future of the Warriors. So, yeah, we’re taking a different stance with slightly different objectives.
But I do believe that young players also have to be developed and learn how to compete to win. So, we will compete to win.
That’s a given. Every game we go out there, we’ll compete to win.
However, we still have to look at the objectives and say, what are we trying to get out of this tournament in terms of the squad composition?
What does the squad look like? How do we want them to perform? What do you want to see from them? So, there will be challenges for me and pressure to go and compete to win.
That’s the best way to develop young players, to give them the responsibility, to give them the accountability. But the most important thing for me is that we are the youngest squad in the tournament.
We have an average age of 21. And we need to look at the possibility of exposing these players and giving them opportunities to move to other leagues.
Mozambique and hosts South Africa are also in the same group as Zimbabwe. The two sides will meet on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of Zimbabwe’s evening clash with Mauritius.
The Warriors will then face South Africa’s Bafana Bafana on Saturday in their second group match, before wrapping up the group stage with a game against Mozambique on Tuesday.
More: The Herald