LEAGUE pace-setters Ngezi Platinum and rivals FC Platinum have been great this season, and are deservedly hitting the headlines every week, threatening to turn the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League title chase into a two horse race.
BY HENRY MHARA
But there is one team that has been quietly going about their business, and are looking a real threat to those two teams’ season ambitions — Harare City.
The Sunshine Boys haven’t been as efficient as the platinum powered teams, but anyone who has seen them in recent week, can testify they are a team that mean business. For a club that should have been playing Division One football now, had the Premier Soccer League not given them a lifeline, their season this far can only be described as stellar.
New coach Mark Harrison, in public, has repeatedly said his target this season was keeping the team in the league, but their performances suggest otherwise. City are joint fourth on the log with 20 points, nine behind log leaders Ngezi Platinum. They have a chance to go third on the log with a win at Chicken Inn tomorrow.
They have lost only once this season, and won their last three matches, form that has helped them sour on the log standings.
But Harrison has decided to be humble about it all, probably to remove pressure from his boys.
“We are not going to win the league. We have no ambition to win it,” Harrison said yesterday.
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“We were relegated last season, and we were given that reprieve, and we are back in the league. We are enjoying it, working hard to try to get better. Our squad is not like that of Caps United, or the Platinum teams squads, because financially we cannot compete with those clubs.
“We have to be happy with where we are and what we are doing. We want to get as high as we can on the log, we have to be ambitious of course, but we cant be over ambitious and crazy. To think we can win the league is over ambitious and crazy. We will try and push as hard as we can and see how far we can go. Personally I think one of the Platinum teams is going to win it, without any doubt.”
Their only defeat this season was against FC Platinum at the start of April, and since then, they have collected 11 points from a possible 15.
Successive wins over Triangle, Dynamos and Nichrut have earned them some admiration, but their performance in the next four matches starting with Chicken Inn, should tell us plenty about their ambitions this year.
After the trip to Luveve, they welcome difficult Shabanie Mine, go to Ngezi Platinum, before hosting Highlanders. Some four big matches.
Harrison is, however, focussed on the immediate challenge.
“We know it would be a tough match down there against the ex-champions. They are always a big threat, they are a big team, and are potential champions. The odds are staked against us, but we are going there full of confidence. We want to go and try to play and perform and if we do that we have a chance of getting something.”
