ZIMBABWE Football Association (Zifa) has come under fire over their selection of coaches for national youth teams.

Goals from CAPS United midfielder Tafadzwa “Makanaka” Rusike and Eagles midfielder Tendai Ranthokoane saw Young Warriors cruising to a 2-1 aggregate win to set a date with Egypt in the first round of the Africa Youth Championships.

Many fans that thronged Gwanzura Stadium on Saturday attributed the team’s uninspiring display to the current coaching set up which they said leaves a lot to be desired.

Under the current setup, Methembe Ndlovu is the head coach and is deputized by Masvingo United coach Taurayi Mangwiro with Rodwell Dhlakama, as the Under-17 coach coming in as another assistant coach.

In the run-up to the match, the team trained under the watchful eye of the injured Dhlakama with Ndlovu and Mangwiro at their respective clubs.

However, come the match day, Dhlakama sits in the terraces as he could not sit on the bench leaving Ndlovu to coach the players whom he had not seen at training.

“You could see from the way the youngsters playing that they were confused. Methembe is a good coach, but he has a lot on his hands at the moment. He has to concentrate on his club Highlanders progress to the next round of the Confederations Cup as well as wrestling the League championship from Dynamos.”

“There are so many coaches out there who can do this job and they need to be engaged if we are to make any progress in this competition,” said one irate fan.

“I do not see anything wrong with the setup. Let us just support the team,” he sad.

Meanwhile, Ndlovu believes his charges will hold their own against Egypt in the first round of the Africa Youth Championships.

The Highlanders coach, however, admitted that the Young Pharaohs of Egypt are going to provide a tougher challenge than that presented by Crocodiles of Lesotho.

“This is going to be a very big challenge. However, we have the talent within the country to match any soccer powerhouse. Egypt is a very strong side and their players are huge. That is an area we are going to work on. The key to winning the tie will be to start preparing for the tie early,” said Ndlovu soon after watching his side beat a subdued Lesotho.

Ndlovu also said that the strike force needs to be sharpened if the Young Warriors harbor any ambitions of prevailing over Egypt.

“That we got all the goals from midfielders is very worrying. The strikers need to be hungrier for goals,” he said.

However, most soccer pundits expressed fears that the workload could be a burden to Ndlovu as he also has to concentrate on his duties as Highlanders coach.

In the match against Lesotho, Zimbabwe played without coherence and could have been punished had Lesotho played with conviction.

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