Barbecue set for Rufaro
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Sunday, 04 August 2013 00:00
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Ishemunyoro ChingwereZimbabwe are ready to bury lowly rated Mauritius in an African Nations Championships (Chan) first round second leg qualifier today in a victory expected to go a long way in building a winning culture ahead of more demanding assignments. The senior men’s
side welcome the visitors in their favourite arena — Rufaro — with a spring in the step, thanks to a 3-0 victory in Curepipe, Mauritius, courtesy of a brace from Nelson Maziwisa and Simba Sithole of Chicken Inn.
The success-starved Warriors, bidding for a third consecutive appearance at Chan — this time to be hosted by neighbours South Africa in January — got a major boost ahead of this afternoon’s duel with chief marksman Tendai Ndoro joining camp from South Africa where he was on trial.
With everybody expecting the Warriors to march past Club M and book a date with Zambia, who are expected to see off the challenge of the Zebras of Botswana, Zimbabwe coach Gorowa is experienced enough to know that complacency can be his biggest undoing and thus spent the better part of the week warning his charges to guard against this ill.
“Going into the match on the back of such a win and everyone expecting us to brush them aside, it is commonplace that complacency creeps in and we are made to pay dearly.“We have thus been working all week long to make sure that they are mentally fit and approach the game with the right mindset and be able to do the job.“The most important thing is that we want to build a culture, a culture of always scoring goals, not conceding and always winning like what we did last Sunday.
“It doesn’t matter who the opponent is, what matters most is that we have managed to get goals, that we have managed not to concede, and once that becomes part of us even in tougher games you will then see us grind narrow victories,” said the former Mamelodi Sundowns coach.
While Dibango had the luxury of dreaming of turning his side into an indomitable force, his opposite number, Akbar Patel, has effectively thrown in the towel in the face of a challenge from what he reckons is by far a better side.
“Zimbabwe are ahead of us in terms of football. I think they made it very easy for themselves with that emphatic victory in Mauritius.“We will still, however, give it our best shot, but it will be very difficult to turn the tables and proceed to the next round,” Patel said.
Judging from their performance a week ago, Club M are nonetheless no pushovers and have enough potency in their armour to spring a major surprise should Gorowa’s men underestimate them.
As rightly noted by Gorowa before the first leg, the islanders have a very mobile midfield that can wreak havoc in opposition defence lines where Fabrice Pithia is the standout performer aided by his twin brother Fabien Pithia and Pierre Stephane.
Warriors midfield hardman Devon Chafa — lucky not to be shown red for aggressive play against the stylish Pithia — will need to be at his usual best to subdue Pithia in the middle of the park.
With a place in the next stage of the qualifiers still to be guaranteed, Gorowa will find it difficult to tamper with the team that did duty in Mauritius with the only change most likely to be Ndoro taking over Charles Sibanda’s place in attack.
Impressive midfielder Tawanda Muparati, who made his debut last week, is also clamouring for a start and is sure to give Gorowa and his technical team a positive selection poser.
The coaches are likely to settle for Triangle’s Blessing Chimwamuchere at left-back after Augustine Mbara (family bereavement) pulled out of camp.Indications from training over the week were that the bulk of the team from the first leg will be retained.
Probable teamsZimbabwe: T Dube, P Jaure, E Chipeta, H Zvirekwi, B Chimwamuchere, D Chafa, M Mambare, S Songani, M Ncube, T Ndoro, N Maziwisa.Mauritius: B Augustibe , H Buckland, C Veeranah, F Pithia, F Pithia, Calambe J, Estazie J, Permal J, Pierre J, Bazerole J, Coco M.
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side welcome the visitors in their favourite arena — Rufaro — with a spring in the step, thanks to a 3-0 victory in Curepipe, Mauritius, courtesy of a brace from Nelson Maziwisa and Simba Sithole of Chicken Inn.
The success-starved Warriors, bidding for a third consecutive appearance at Chan — this time to be hosted by neighbours South Africa in January — got a major boost ahead of this afternoon’s duel with chief marksman Tendai Ndoro joining camp from South Africa where he was on trial.
With everybody expecting the Warriors to march past Club M and book a date with Zambia, who are expected to see off the challenge of the Zebras of Botswana, Zimbabwe coach Gorowa is experienced enough to know that complacency can be his biggest undoing and thus spent the better part of the week warning his charges to guard against this ill.
“Going into the match on the back of such a win and everyone expecting us to brush them aside, it is commonplace that complacency creeps in and we are made to pay dearly.“We have thus been working all week long to make sure that they are mentally fit and approach the game with the right mindset and be able to do the job.“The most important thing is that we want to build a culture, a culture of always scoring goals, not conceding and always winning like what we did last Sunday.
“It doesn’t matter who the opponent is, what matters most is that we have managed to get goals, that we have managed not to concede, and once that becomes part of us even in tougher games you will then see us grind narrow victories,” said the former Mamelodi Sundowns coach.
While Dibango had the luxury of dreaming of turning his side into an indomitable force, his opposite number, Akbar Patel, has effectively thrown in the towel in the face of a challenge from what he reckons is by far a better side.
“Zimbabwe are ahead of us in terms of football. I think they made it very easy for themselves with that emphatic victory in Mauritius.“We will still, however, give it our best shot, but it will be very difficult to turn the tables and proceed to the next round,” Patel said.
Judging from their performance a week ago, Club M are nonetheless no pushovers and have enough potency in their armour to spring a major surprise should Gorowa’s men underestimate them.
As rightly noted by Gorowa before the first leg, the islanders have a very mobile midfield that can wreak havoc in opposition defence lines where Fabrice Pithia is the standout performer aided by his twin brother Fabien Pithia and Pierre Stephane.
Warriors midfield hardman Devon Chafa — lucky not to be shown red for aggressive play against the stylish Pithia — will need to be at his usual best to subdue Pithia in the middle of the park.
With a place in the next stage of the qualifiers still to be guaranteed, Gorowa will find it difficult to tamper with the team that did duty in Mauritius with the only change most likely to be Ndoro taking over Charles Sibanda’s place in attack.
Impressive midfielder Tawanda Muparati, who made his debut last week, is also clamouring for a start and is sure to give Gorowa and his technical team a positive selection poser.
The coaches are likely to settle for Triangle’s Blessing Chimwamuchere at left-back after Augustine Mbara (family bereavement) pulled out of camp.Indications from training over the week were that the bulk of the team from the first leg will be retained.
Probable teamsZimbabwe: T Dube, P Jaure, E Chipeta, H Zvirekwi, B Chimwamuchere, D Chafa, M Mambare, S Songani, M Ncube, T Ndoro, N Maziwisa.Mauritius: B Augustibe , H Buckland, C Veeranah, F Pithia, F Pithia, Calambe J, Estazie J, Permal J, Pierre J, Bazerole J, Coco M.
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