DESPITE calls by Young Warriors coach Jairosi Tapera that his charges should continue with training as they prepare for the return 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifier against Cameroon on June 10 the team yesterday break camp.

The Under-20 national soccer team were held to a goalless draw by the West Africans at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.

They will have to dig deeper if they entertain any thoughts of progressing to the last round of the qualifiers.

And while the Cameroonians have made it clear that they are not going to rest on their laurels but will work hard to rectify the mistakes they made here the Young Warriors trooped out of the camp yesterday.

ZIFA communications manager Xolisani Gwesela said the dates for the next training camp would be announced in due course.

“It is important that they train but for now they have to break camp and it is just for a short period. We will announce the new dates for the camp,” said Gwesela.

Young Warriors coach Tapera was hoping that they could mask their first leg shortcomings by having a lengthy training camp to maximise on the remaining three weeks before the reverse match is fulfilled.

The former FC Platinum coach blamed poor preparations as his charges were held at home after just training for three days.

He was irked more by the fact their opponents were in camp for the past three months where they had an opportunity to play international friendly matches Ghana, Burkina Faso and Morocco prior to the weekend’s game.

And the Cameroon side also benefited immensely from a CAF top refresher course which was held in Yaounde for CAF instructors from the continent in March as they were used as the demonstration group on the drills conducted by the instructors.

By that time the team was already in camp as the Cameroon FA are prioritising junior teams ahead of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations which would be in that country.

“Even if you were to say we still fancy our chances in Cameroon, are we going to be given enough time to prepare. Are we going to be given enough time to prepare? My program is, I thought we could not break camp and continue training, prepare ourselves whatever is going to happen in Cameroon is something else but we have to be prepared.

“Football is about preparing. These guys are not naturally talented, talent is only shown because they have been shaped, they have been moving around with the ball. But if you are going to just pick somebody from home, yesterday, I had to pick Obert from home, and trained for 30 minutes, a national team player?

“If you don’t prepare you are obviously preparing to fail that is the naked truth about football,” said Tapera.

Tapera’s wishes to bankrupt ZIFA were surely not granted and the coach may endure another very short period of training before traveling to West Africa.

Cameroon coach Cyprian Besong Ashu said they are going to do their homework before hosting Zimbabwe.

“I see those chances back home going in. We are going back home to the training field and try to perfect some of our collective play and our finishing and we expect to get a good game back home.

“We are not happy with the draw because it was an average performance from us, we can go two gears up and play far much better and even if we created a lot of chances there is still a lot to work on and we can do better.

“It could have been more better the game. We could live with (goalless draw) it, we still have the second leg at home but it was an average performance from us because we can step up another gear even though we created a number of chances it could have done better.

“Back home it would be a different game. We can step up and I am sure we are confident and more positive of ourselves and we will give them a tough game back home,” he said.

The Young Warriors, however, drew a lot of positives from as Tapera’s charges under minimum time showed that they can achieve something.

Players such as Highlanders striker Prince Dube, Obert Tofira and goalkeeper Nelson Chadya who shut out numerous chances form the visitors showed that with a bit more time the team can really come to the party.

he was ripe for the big stage but missed some clear cut chances while Obert Tofira who came in as a substitute in the second period used his height to his advantage and could have buried one of those headers in as he made his presence felt.

Ngezi Platinum goalkeeper Nelson Chadya performance displayed a depth in the goalkeepers in the country and showed that more Tatenda Mukuruvas may continue to emerge on the scene.