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Don’t practice penalty taking: Mangwiro

Soccer
HARARE City coach Taurai Mangwiro says he doesn’t believe in practicing penalty taking before a match.

HARARE City coach Taurai Mangwiro says he doesn’t believe in practicing penalty taking before a match.

BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA

The Sunshine City Boys face off ZPC Kariba in the first semi-final of the Chibuku Super Cup at Mandava Stadium in Zvishavane on Saturday.

Dynamos will take on Chapungu in the other semi-final at the same venue the following day.

Speaking to reporters during a news conference in Harare yesterday Mangwiro said he was one coach who did not believe practicing penalty taking would see you deliver the result.

“I am one person who doesn’t believe practicing penalties will see you home. It’s how you handle the pressure on the day that can see you home. Of course here and there we have players taking penalties, but I don’t believe it can have much of an impact because sometimes you are taking the last penalty to see you home and usually there is pressure. So we don’t give much time to that unfortunately, but some coaches do practice penalty taking its different,” said Mangwiro.

The Harare City gaffer said while he had great respect for ZPC Kariba coach Sunday Chidzambwa, whom he said mentored him during his playing days, he did not fear him.

He said Harare City were out of reckoning for the championship and that they now viewed the Chibuku Super Cup as a major priority. Mangwiro said the Chibuku Super Cup would give them the opportunity to represent the country in Africa and described the clash against ZPC Kariba as a very important fixture.

“Important fixture we have. Important because that’s where we have a lifeline. We have now done very well and are 14 points off the mark as far as the league championship is concerned. But for the Chibuku Super Cup, if we can go on and win it, we are two games away from representing the country in Africa. That is why I am saying it’s an important fixture for us. We will give it our best shot and we hope we will be able to atone for the 2-0 drubbing that we got at the hands of ZPC in the reverse fixture,” Mangwiro said.

He also spoke of his ambition to mould a formidable team in the three years he will be in charge of the Sunshine City Boys. “For us to be honest with you we have to be realistic with our target. That is why at the start of the season there was so much hype about the team Harare City had assembled. I have been realistic from day one because I know it is easy to assemble a team and expect to deliver right away so what I have is a three year contract and in those three years I have to turn the team into a formidable team,” Mangwiro said.

While Harare City have turned their home ground into a fortress, they have not really been convincing away from home.

However, Mangwiro believes they have had a decent show with five draws and two wins away from home.

“I wouldn’t want to say we have performed dismally away from home, if anything five draws we have had way from home and two victories we have also had, but in those five draws we were by far the better team. What we didn’t have was the ability to finish off opponents.”

ZPC Kariba thumped How Mine 3-0 to reach the semi-finals while Harare City clobbered Triangle 5-0 to book a semi-final place.

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