Caps United Fire Warning Shots
23 January 2017
Ray Nkosi |Zimbabwe’s Africa Champions League representatives CAPS United, yesterday fired early warning shots of their intentions to rock Africa with a 2 – 0 thrashing of Mozambican soccer giants Ferroviario Beira at the National Sports Stadium.
Abbas Amidu’s first half strike on 30 minutes from an acute angle and another in the second half by substitute Amon Kambanje after he was put through by new recruit Ronald Chitiyo formerly with Harare City was what Caps United needed to secure victory.
The score line however does not complete describe the quality of the tough competition by the visitors who had former Dynamos goalkeeper Willard Manyatela in goals. The Mozambicans gave everything especially in the first half in which they carved out good chances with forward Nelito- a constant threat every time he won possession. That they didn’t manage to score even a single goal is not a true reflection of their performance.
CAPS United coach, Llyod Chitembwe praised his players for the good performance though claiming that he was less worried about the result and more about the conditioning of his players.
“For now we are not really looking at performance. We are looking at the aspect of conditioning. The endurance aspect is there but the element of speed is not there. The speed of thought, the speed of reaction and speed of execution but generally I am happy with the desire and commitment shown by these players. It’s still work in progress. We still have three more weeks to assess the team but this match has been very helpful. Every single training session means a lot to the team,” said Chitembwe adding that he was also happy with the two new recruits Ronald Chitiyo and former FC Platinum player Last Sithole.
Caps United begin their Champions League campaign with a clash against Lesotho minnows Lioli in the preliminary stage next month, and will face off African football giants TP Mazembe in the first round if they advance. If they beat Lioli and TP Mazembe, they will advance to the group stages after Caf cut the two-legged qualifying phase from three rounds to two and expanded the group stage from eight to 16 teams, divided into four groups of four clubs. If they lose against Mazembe, they will be relegated to the Caf Confederations Cup, where they will be required to participate in a play-off round. The preliminary round ties of the Caf Champions League will be played on the weekends of February 10 to 12 and 17 to 19.