HARARE City has set their sights on winning the Premier Soccer League title this year and emulate the success that has been achieved by reigning champions Caps United.
BY HENRY MHARA
The Green Machine shrugged off competition from both FC Platinum and Highlanders to win the league title last year, earning themselves a ticket to represent the country in the Caf Champions League.
The Lloyd Chitembwe-coached side, in their return to the continent’s premier club competition after quiet a while, have already taken the tournament by storm by advancing to the group stage after upsetting Democratic Republic of Congo giants TP Mazembe at the weekend.
It appears Harare City has been keeping an eye on their city rivals’ accomplishments and now wants to follow in those footsteps.
“We are looking at nothing other than the championship this season. We are inspired by what Caps United has done this year and next year we are saying its Harare City who should be doing that,” Harare City secretary-general Mathew Marara said.
Marara said their preparations for the new season are in full gear, having held a training camp outside Harare, which they followed up with three practice matches against league returnees Black Rhinos, Bantu Rovers and Bulawayo City. All matches ended in draws.
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“We have been on the preparation run. We started with medicals mid-January and then in February the team went for camping in Nyanga for two weeks. We are happy with the shaping up of the team in terms of the fitness. This time of the season we are mainly looking at the players’ fitness more than anything else so the draws we got is not a cause for concern. We wanted to gauge the physical condition of the players, so from now on the technical team is emphasising on technical capabilities of the team to make sure that we will be able to win matches when the season starts.”
City has made changes to their technical team, in line with Zifa club licensing, which requires the team’s head coach and assistant to posses a Caf A coaching qualification.
Mike Madzivanyika, formerly an assistant coach, emerged as the major beneficiary to the Zifa requirements, as he was promoted to head the bench and is assisted by Philemon Mutyakureva. Witness Munkuli is the goalkeepers’ coach.
Assistant coach Mkuphali Masuku, who the club had initially endorsed to take over from Moses Chunga was demoted.
“What we initially wanted to do is not what we eventually did because of club licensing requirements. As Harare City, we have followed it to the dot. We had earmarked Masuku for the head coach position, but he does not have the required qualifications, and is now the team manager. He has a Caf B and Uefa B, and unfortunately he couldn’t make it to the proper technical team.
Harare City have made their intentions of winning the league clear by capturing attackers Malven Gaki and Pritchard Mphelele to replace Ronald Chitiyo and Raphael Manuvire, who left for Caps United and ZPC Kariba respectively.
