CAPS United coach Lloyd Chitembwe said his team needs to strike a fine balance between attack and defence when they take on Lesotho champions Lioli in their Confederation of African Football (Caf) Champions League preliminary round first leg match at the Setsoto Stadium in Maseru on Saturday.
BY HENRY MHARA
The Green Machine contigent is expected to leave the country for the match tomorrow morning.
The match, which was initially pencilled for Sunday, has been brought forward by 24 hours by the hosts and kick-off is 4pm Zimbabwe time.
Caps United, though playing away, will start as favourites against the minnows.
Chitembwe is aware of the need to pick a positive result away from home with the return leg in Harare next weekend, but said he would not be gung-ho as many people would want.
“We will try to defend well and try to score more goals than the other team,” Chitembwe said after the team’s training session yesterday.
The league champions have been thorough in their preparations for the African Safari, playing three international friendlies against opponents from Mozambique and Zambia.
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“In terms of preparations, we have done that bit. The players know the challenge at hand. One thing I can see in them is the motivation in wanting to do more and to play at that level of the game. That alone is good enough to have in the team. Preps is a continuous process. We can never be satisfied, but I am very happy with the level of fitness that we are at.”
Chitembwe said he has very little information about his weekend opponents, but believes they have done enough to win the match.
“They are a football team, that’s one thing for sure. They are Lesotho reigning league champions and they are also participating in the Champions League. That’s all I know about them. We will approach them like we would other teams. And like I said, we will have to defend and attack effectively.”
He announced there are no injuries in his squad.
Lioli, Lesotho champions for the third time, are second on the log table after 16 matches.
Caps United skipper, Moses Muchenje reckons that their opponents could be sharper than them, as their league is in progress.
“In terms of fitness, they have an advantage. But we have also prepared enough and have what it takes to win on Saturday. We have had good preparations, including the friendly matches we played in Zambia, so we are going to implement those things we learnt to maximum effect,” he said.
Ahead of the match in Lesotho, the Harare giants yesterday unveiled their kit for the 2017 season, with the team maintaining their traditional green and white colours.
They will start using the kit, donated by their technical sponsor Roar, at the weekend. Caps United fans should expect to have access to the replica jerseys next week.
“We are very grateful to them (Roar). The quality is good. We went through different types of the kits and the board said this one was the best and the quality we want. We will have vendors selling our merchandise on match days and we will also open a Caps United shop in a couple of weeks where our fans can buy the merchandise,” said the club’s marketing director Hannah Wright.
Caps legends based in London donated some footballs, bibs, a cooler box and water bottles to the team.
