By Steve Vickers BBC Sport, Harare

Zimbabwe thought they were playing El Salvador

Zimbabwe's Warriors have been caught up in controversy surrounding their recent opponents El Salvador.

The Central Americans drew 0-0 with Zimbabwe in a friendly match in Harare on Sunday and were due to play a second game on Wednesday as part of the Warriors' Nations Cup preparations.

But the El Salvador players left the country on Tuesday amid allegations that they were not the genuine national team.

Only two recognised members of the senior national El Salvador squad played in Sunday's match, which saw the visitors failing to create any shots at goal.

Furthermore, national team coach Juan Ramon Paredes did not travel to Zimbabwe, with Ricardo Guardado taking charge of the side.

Although the El Salvador Football Federation says that it will be investigating the matter, officials who accompanied the team to Zimbabwe insisted that they had not short-changed anyone.

"The allegations are not true, we are rebuilding the national team and these new players are all part of our future plans to take us to the 2006 World Cup," said head of delegation Jose Gundron.

Guardado said that he was coaching the team on behalf of Paredes and would be reporting to him.

"Zimbabwe couldn't score against us, and their world ranking is much higher than ours, so you can't say that we played badly," said Guardado.

With the cancellation of Wednesday's match, the Warriors may not play any further international friendlies before the Nations Cup.

Plans for a warm-up against Kenya have been shelved, and a fixture against Zambia scheduled for 11 January has been put back a week.