FC Platinum have finally signed Mochudi Centre Chiefs (BMC) striker Joel Mogorosi on a three-year deal after the two football clubs reached an agreement last week.
Mogorosi, who injured his arm during Botswana’s preparations for their debut at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and eventually missed out, sealed a permanent move last week.
“He was here for two days with his chairman Ernest (Molome) and we signed and sealed everything. He is now our player on a permanent basis and I think he signed an initial three-year deal. His arm will be fine in the next two weeks or so.
“He is a good player and will be an important part of the strike force,” sources told NewsDay Sport on Saturday. Mogorosi was not registered for the Champions League, but would be available if the team reaches the mini-league phase.
They face Green Mamba of Swaziland next weekend in the preliminary round with dates against El Merreikh of Sudan and TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo possible in the next two rounds.
Meanwhile, Platinum assistant coach Tendai Chikuni is worried about his strikers’ impotency after they failed to convert a glut of chances during Saturday’s friendly match against visiting Botswana side BMC at Mandava Stadium.
Chikuni on Saturday witnessed his complacent side missing numerous chances resulting in BMC recording a 2-0 shock victory.
First-half goals by BMC’s Zimbabwean duo of Hillary Madzivanyika and Mandlaenkosi Sibanda carried the day for the visitors who capitalised on the hosts’ defensive mix-ups in both goals.
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The platinum miners came back more determined after the breather, creating more goal-scoring opportunities that were, however, never transformed into goals.
This left the home side’s technical team pointing their strike force’s ineffectiveness as their biggest shortcoming.
“We have seen some of the positive and negative things in our squad. Most worrisome is how we failed to score when we had more chances than them (BMC). We missed a lot of chances and we need to work on conversions. This is the most negative thing we have noted and something needs to be done to make sure we score.
“But this negative aspect can work in our favour because it gave us a clear picture of what we need to improve in the team to avoid things like this from further happening,” said Chikuni.
“We are still working on different combinations and hopefully the players will gel as we go because the other thing in football is that if you play as a team you win. But we are not really panicking because of this loss,” said Chikuni.
New signing Mitchell Katsvairo, who started as a lone striker in the first half, appeared to be the culprit-in-chief in missing chances, with Donald Ngoma turning out to be a shadow of his best self.
Chikuni, however, expressed his satisfaction from the challenge offered by BMC who before the match were tipped by many to receive a hiding from the platinum miners.
“Really I can safely say yes BMC gave us the competition we needed to assess our team. We gave everyone a chance to play to see who fits where. If you play a foreign team, it gives you the right picture of your team’s readiness for other foreign teams. Now we know what we need to improve on and BMC provided a good challenge for us.
“But overall, we are happy with the build-up and hope we will be in fine shape when we play Black Mamba,” he added.
