BY MAGRETH RUZVIDZO HARARE City coach Taurai Mangwiro is charmed by Norman Mapeza’s work ethic and has heaped praise on the FC Platinum coach ahead of the two teams’ league clash at Mandava Stadium on Saturday.
The pair worked together in the Warriors technical team set-up at the Africa Cup of Nations finals last month in Cameroon when Mapeza headed the department and Mangwiro was his assistant.
Ahead of the two teams’ clash, the Harare City coach was extremely complimentary about his colleague, and believes the match would be tough for his side.
“We have great respect for our opponents, they are the defending champions in the league and they have been dominant in the past few years. For that, they deserve a lot of respect,” Mangwiro said.
“Their coach is a colleague of mine, whom I have great admiration for what I saw in him when we teamed up at the Afcon. He is actually something that I have never thought he was — a very easy guy to work with.
“He is a guy who puts in so much into his work and you don’t know how much time he spends on researching and planning for his sessions. So that’s something that I really liked about him during our time together. I didn’t know that he put so much into his work.”
He added: “We are well aware that it will be a different ball game together against an opponent who has, over the years, proved to be very difficult to beat especially at home. We know we have to be at our best to salvage something out of the game.”
The Sunshine Boys collected their first maximum points of the campaign last weekend after they thrashed Cranborne Bullets 3-1 at the National Sports Stadium.
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He said the victory had lifted morale in camp, and wants his side to keep the momentum.
Getting a string of winning results is an immediate target for City, which has had an underwhelming start to their season.
A 1-0 defeat to Cranborne Bullets in their opening match was followed up by three draws before they finally realised how to win last week.
“We are delighted to have won last weekend. To have finally won and to have scored three, that’s something encouraging on its own,” Mangwiro said.
He revealed that Tinashe Mureya and Tyler Mugoniwa would miss the weekend trip to Zvishavane because of an injury.
FC Platinum’s recent run of results will further encourage Mangwiro.
The defending champions have dropped seven points in their last three matches.
Mapeza’s men were beaten 2-0 by Bulawayo Chiefs and drew against Dynamos and ZPC Kariba.
Dropping more points this weekend will further throw their title defence in disarray.
With eight points, FC Platinum are currently four points behind early pacesetters Manica Diamonds and Chicken Inn after five rounds of matches.
They cannot just afford to lose more ground.
- Follow Magreth on Twitter @MagrethRuzvidzo
