Zimbabwe U23

Harare's National Sports Stadium fills for the senior side, but it also hosts the age-group team that feeds into it. The 60,000-seat ground gives the under-23s a stage well beyond what youth football usually gets, even when the crowd is a fraction of that number.

The side traces its recent record to the 2015 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, its first appearance in the tournament that doubles as Olympic qualifying for the continent. That double purpose matters more than the results have so far allowed: Zimbabwe's men have never turned a campaign into an Olympic berth, and the women's team has done what this one has not, reaching Rio in 2016. No final, no title, has come from the U-23 side's efforts in the CAF competition.

What the team has kept is the senior side's colours, yellow shirt and shorts head to toe, and the regional rivalries that come with sharing a region with Zambia and South Africa in COSAFA and beyond. Those matches carry more weight for a young squad than the continental fixtures.

60,000 is the number the National Sports Stadium can hold on the nights Zimbabwe's football draws a full house.