Zimbabwe Warriors were yesterday left disappointed after Japan changed their plans in the last minute and opted instead to play their last friendly against Mozambique in George

on Thursday.

In a report posted in the Herald, ZIFA board member in charge of competitions, Benedict Moyo, revealed that the Japanese, who had initially proposed to play the Warriors, would now play Mozambique instead.

After hosting the Brazilian national team last Wednesday, the Warriors were readying to play Japan in the visitor’s final warm-up before they kick-off their World Cup Group E campaign.

Japan will begin their World Cup campaign with a tough assignment against African giants Cameroon in Bloemfontein on June 14.

They will also face European sides Holland at the Moses Mabidha Stadium in Durban on June 19 and Denmark in Rustenburg on June 24 in their other group games.

Moyo revealed yesterday that his board had agreed over the weekend to engage the Japanese World Cup squad in George.

He, however, could not shed light on the reasons behind Japan’s decision to settle for Mozambique arguing that he was still to receive official communication on the latest developments by last night.

“I have just heard that things have since changed and I am trying to get the office to update me on the communication they may have received from the Japanese,” Moyo said.

Moyo stressed that his association had been excited by the prospects of playing another World Cup finalist and had immediately taken up the offer once it was presented to the board members at the weekend.

“Once we got the invitation from Japan to send our national team for a training game against their World Cup squad we generally agreed as a board that this was a good opportunity for our players and the coaches to have a game against World Cup opponents.

“We have said that we would want to change the face of football during our tenure and strengthening our national teams is one of our priority areas.

“We were all so happy with the way the team performed against Brazil and I think they made the whole nation proud,” Moyo said.