Mighty Warriors' Long Road Journey

Zifa Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Mashingaizde revealed that the Mighty Warriors are leaving Harare Wednesday and will arrive in Gaborone in time for Saturday’s qualifier.

Mashingaidze says the national football federation does not have money at the moment adding that they are doing the best they can to make sure that national teams fulfil their international engagements.

Despite this, Mighty Warriors assistant coach Nkululeko Dhlamini is still optimistic that the Mighty Warriors will come out tops in the game.

‘We have been in this situation before. We might have our problems but we are playing the game because we want to win and that is exactly what we are going for in Botswana,’ said Dhlamini.

Should the Mighty Warriors sail past Botswana, they will face the mighty Falcons of Nigeria who are the current Africa champions.

Zifa, however, have to sort out their financial situation before the Super Falcons showdown as there is no way the Mighty Warriors can travel all the way to Lagos by road.

The 2012 African Women’s Championships will be hosted by Equatorial Guinea after Zimbabwe lost out in their bid to host Africa’s biggest women’s football tournament.

The Mighty Warriors are hoping to qualify for the second time for the African Women’s Championships having been at the South Africa competition in 2009 and shocked South Africa’s Banyana Banyana 2-1 before holding Ethiopia to a one-all draw.

The team, however, went out of international football for three years due to financial problems but bounced back in style two years ago and went on to win the COSAFA Women’s Champions in Harare last year, and also qualified for the All Africa Games held in Mozambique in September last year.