HIGHLANDERS captain Innocent Mapuranga has challenged his teammates to forget about Harare City’s poor start to the Premier Soccer League (PSL) campaign when the two teams come face to face in the Uhuru Cup third place play-off at Barbourfields Stadium tomorrow.
By Ronald Moyo Sports Reporter
The two teams will be meeting for the second time this year after clashing in the semi-finals of the Bob90 in which Highlanders emerged 2-1 victors. Harare City have had a poor start in the new season losing two of their opening matches.
Bigboy Mawiwi’s boys lost 3-0 at the hands of Chicken Inn at Luveve Stadium in their opening match of the season before losing 2-1 to city neighbours Caps United last week.
However, the veteran Highlanders skipper does not want to read much into Harare City’s poor form and believes that they should be treated with respect like any other Premiership team.
Despite their poor start to the campaign, Harare City, who finished third last season trailing Bosso and Dynamos on goal difference, are still among the championship favourites.
Mapuranga said the team should not bank on last week’s performance where the Bulawayo giants beat Shabanie Mine 4-1, but work hard and engage Harare City with a different approach.
“We are approaching this game like any other game. It is worthy, so we have to be at our best,” Mapuranga said.
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“At Highlanders, we respect every team we play against, we have a different approach to every team, but we do not change attitude because we go onto the pitch with a winning mentality.
“This is a different game altogether so we are not going to relax because we beat Shabanie Mine convincingly last week.
“We will go out there with a winning mentality. They have had a bad start in the new season, but we still respect them like any other team.”
Although the defender dismissed suggestions of any grudges against the Harare side, Bosso fans have not forgotten their team’s 4-0 drubbing by Harare City towards the end of the season last year, subsequently costing them the championship.
Even the players are aware that a convincing win against the team that denied them a chance to win the championship, especially in a money game, will console their faithful who have gone for seven years without the championship.
Mapuranga said the team would also use the match as a yardstick to measure their pedigree in this year’s PSL campaign.
“The match will also keep us focused in the PSL race. Winning against a team like Harare City can show you where you are. We must win this match to boost ourselves,” he added.
Highlanders chairman Peter Dube said head coach Kelvin Kaindu who was doing his Uefa B licence was expected to take charge of the team.
“We are expecting him to be here by Friday (tomorrow), but he might be in the country by tomorrow (today),” Dube said.
Efforts to talk to one of Harare City players were fruitless as team head coach Bigboy Mawiwi said the club did not want to put their players under pressure. “We don’t want them to talk to the media at the moment. They have had a bad start to the season so we don’t want to give them unnecessary pressure,” Mawiwi said.
Harare City will be without the injured Crybert Mubvuti, Martin Vengesai, Nathan Ziwini and Munyaradzi Kunyarimwe. On the other hand, Bosso will miss the services of striker Gabriel Nyoni who was injured last Sunday against Shabanie Mine.
Bosso and Harare City were beaten by FC Platinum and defending champions Dynamos respectively in the semi-final matches played in Harare and Bulawayo last month. The two will meet in Harare for the top prize.
