CAPS United board member Cuthbert Chitima believes that his club has enough quality in their squad to win their first Premiership football title in a decade.
BY HENRY MHARA
The Green Machine last won the league title in 2005 under the feted coach Charles Mhlauri. Since then, the only meaningful trophies they have won are the BancABC Sup8r Cup and the CBZ Cup, both bagged in a fruitful 2008 season.
In a bid to bring back the glory days, the club raided the market, bringing in top stars such as 2013 Soccer Star of the Year Dennis Dauda, Archford Gutu, Devon Chafa, Brian Abbasi Amidu and Tafadzwa Rusike.
Lloyd Chitembwe
Former club stars Method Mwanjali, Simba Nhivi, Gilbert Mapemba, Edmore “Zikeeper” Sibanda and Ronald Pfumbidzai have also rejoined as coach Lloyd Chitembwe assembled what appears a very formidable side, at least on paper.
The season is still more than a month away, but Chitembwe has already been thrust under pressure after the club went all out signing some of the best players available.
The board has already laid the law and the fans will also make similar demands after the club assembled one of their strongest squads in years. Chitima, who is Caps United board member responsible for development, said with so much talent in its ranks, the team would be going all out for the biggest prize.
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“As Caps United, we always have to be competitive and we are building a team that we think will compete well,” he said. “Who doesn’t want to win the league? You can’t get into a competition without aiming to win, so it’s one of our objectives this season. We want to win the league. We are capable and we’ve got the material. We have a very good and strong squad and it’s possible that we can win the league,” he added. Caps United, who were drawn to play Harare City in the ZNA Charities Shield quarter-final to be played early next month, are expected to leave for Mozambique today where they will have a 10-day training camp.
“It’s a fair draw and I’m anticipating a good game against Harare City. It’s good for us to have such matches considering the season could start at the end of March or early April, so it’s a long time to just prepare without competitive matches, so it becomes part of our preseason. The match will help us gauge ourselves where we are as a team,” Chitima said.
In Maputo, they will be involved in an invitational tournament involving three local league clubs — reigning champions Clube Ferroviario de Maputo, Clube Ferroviario de Beira and Textafrica de Chimoio.
The games will be played this weekend in Chimoio before proceeding to Beira for further training.
Chitembwe said at the training camp, they will be focusing more on team bonding. “We are going there for a team bonding exercise. We want the team to train away from any distractions. Many a times we train here for two hours then the players go back to their families, but we have decided to go away so we can know each other better,” Chitembwe said.
A squad of 27 players has been selected for the trip to Mozambique.
