“We are doing our best to build a strong team and fans will do well to understand that we are in a rebuilding exercise that will not produce instant results,” said Dhlamini. “We have a complete set up of new things – new coach, new players and new philosophy. All these need some time to gel, but with everyone’s support, we will surely do our best.”
He also emphasized the need to go back to grassroots soccer development that would teach players football basics. “The youth are the future and junior football initiatives must be supported countrywide to make coaches’ job easier. We need to start featuring regularly at international tournaments like the World Cup and the AFCON and this can only happen with proper youth structures.”
Pagels’ first assignment saw the Warriors beat neighbouring Botswana 2-1 in a recent international friendly, to somehow boost their chances ahead of the 2015 Afcon qualifiers. Zimbabwe are currently placed 101st in the FIFA world rankings and need to post better results to fare better.