BY HENRY MHARA DYNAMOS are assessing former youth international striker Remington Masuku as they look to bolster their attack which has proved to be the team’s Achilles heel in its pursuit of the league title.
The 25-year-old former Under-17 and Under-20 international began training with the Harare giants on Wednesday and with the transfer window closing at midnight on Sunday, he has two more days to impress the coaches.
Coach Tonderai Ndiraya confirmed yesterday that Masuku, who has been plying his trade in Botswana in recent years, is training with the team with the hope of joining.
“We have some players we are assessing and if they make the grade, we will recommend to the board to get them signed,” Ndiraya told the media yesterday.
“We are still in the process of identifying the players who we really want. We want quality so hopefully we can get quality forwards.”
The striking department has been DeMbare’s area of weakness so far and their supporters fear it could cost the team the championship this season.
Of the five strikers on the club’s books this year, only Alex Orotomal has registered a goal, which he scored against WhaWha two months ago.
Tinashe Makanda, Evans Katema, Albert Eonde and young Luke Musikiri are yet to find the back of the net, 22 matches into the season.
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Ndiraya has been forced to shuffle his strikers regularly in search of a scoring formula and last week against title rivals Chicken Inn, he deployed Orotomal and Makanda, and the two made an impression.
They duo did not score, but were both involved in two of the three goals that Dynamos scored in the comfortable 3-0 win at Barbourfields Stadium.
Orotomal created the penalty that was scored by Frank Makarati for the opener and Makanda provided the assist for the third goal which was scored by Emmanuel Paga. The attacking midfielder is the club’s leading scorer with six goals.
Young Blessing Makunike scored the other goal in a victory that revived the Dynamos title chase.
“The goals came, but I’m still worried about our forwards. Paga scored which is good for the forwards, but we are still looking at this department because we want them to score goals. That is where our main worry is. We hope that they can pick from last week’s performance. Those who started gave a good account of themselves,” Ndiraya said.
The victory over Chicken Inn came on the back of a winless run that had stretched to four games. In that period Dynamos failed to score a single goal.
Ndiraya’s men host Bulawayo Chiefs at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.
He will go into the battle without Emmanuel Jalai, who has failed to recover from an injury he picked against Chicken Inn.
The diminutive right back joins King Nadolo, Shadreck Nyahwa and Ralph Kawondera in the treatment room.
“We now have five key players on the injury list and that’s a very huge worry for us,” Ndiraya said.
“We have been working without those. But remember we won our last game without four key players so that is what is giving us confidence. We are getting into the game with those that we worked with last week, those that helped us get a result so hopefully we can prepare those and work hard on Sunday to get a result against a very good Bulawayo Chiefs side.”
Victory against second-placed Chicken Inn came on the back of another impressive performance against log leaders FC Platinum the previous week, which they manage to hold to a goalless draw.
“We have been in a very difficult phase as a team but I’m glad that we are slowly getting out of the phase. We are not really out yet, but we are getting out slowly,” Ndiraya said.
“The result last weekend against Chicken Inn in Bulawayo for that matter really gave us a lot of confidence and it is our hope that we will continue on that trajectory. It is our wish that we do well on Sunday before the home crowd. We had a good reception last week in Bulawayo so we are hoping to have another good reception from the Harare fans.”
Chiefs are arriving in Harare with their confidence also high after winning their last match against Tenax.
“Bulawayo Chiefs have been getting results away from their home so they pose a very difficult challenge. They can become a very difficult opponent for us given this background so we need to be focused and work in that game to get maximum points. Maximum points are what we are looking for, that is what we need at this stage of the season,” the Dynamos coach added.
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