Young Warriors drawn in easy group “C”

Zimbabwe are the defending champions following a 3-0 emphatic victory over the hosts South Africa’s Amajita in a thrilling final encounter strongly contested at Thulamahashe Stadium in Mpumalamnga province, South Africa in December.
 
The Young Warriors have been drawn in Group C with Botswana, Mauritius, and Malawi whilst the losing finalists and hosting nation, South Africa will battle it out with Lesotho, Zambia and Sychelles in Group A.
 
In group B, Namibia were drawn alongside Swaziland and Angola whilst Madagascar will content with Comoros and Mozambique in Group D. The draw was done inconjunction with the teams’ success in the previous tournament held in Mpumalanga last December, and the four seeded nations, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Madagascar and Namibia reached the finals as well as third and fourth positions respectively.
 
Speaking at the ceremony, COSAFA Scretary-General, Ashford Mamelodi, said COSAFA’s effort in seeing the southern African football produce fruitful results would be realised in 2010 World Cup when the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) comes to South Africa.
 
“The Metropolitan has invested heavily into football, so as custodians of football in this region, we would like to see one of our nations reach either the semifinal or finals in the forthcoming World Cup soccer showcase.  More importantly, we will be grateful to see some of the Metropolitan-COSAFA under-20 players featuring in the World Cup 2010 finals in this African soil,” said Mamelodi.
 
Speasking at the same function, Metropolitan Group Chief Executive, Nkosinathi Chonco, said his company would continue bank-rolling the Metropolitan-COSAFA under-20 until the historic 2010 FIFA World Cup comes to South Africa.
 
“”As Metropolitan, we shall continue playing our part in developing football at grassroots level in our region. We need to create the sense of belonging, and we are definitely doing exactly that to bring in football development  throughout the southern African region,” said Chonco.
 
This year’s Metropolitican COSAFA Under-20 tournament will be held in Kimberely, Northern Cape province.  Northern Cape Premier, Dipou Peters, says her provincial government would do all it could to make sure this year’s tournament is huge success.
 
“It is very unfortunate that our province is not going to host any soccer matches of the 2010 Soccer World Cup due to poor preparedness, but we will do all we can to make sure that the Metropolitan-COSAFA under-20 soccer tournament is a great success,” said Peters.
 
GROUP A                    GROUP C
South Africa                Zimbabwe
Lesotho                      Botswana
Zambia                        Malawi
Seychelles                   Mauritius
 
GROUP B                   GROUP D
Namibia                      Madagascar
Swaziland                   Comoros
Angola                       Mozambique—CAJ News