Zimpapers Logo

Harare Bureau
Harare City 0-0 Caps Utd

CAPS United coach Lloyd Chitembwe said he would want to see improvement from his team after they were held to a goalless draw by Harare City in a Castle Lager Premiership match, at the National Sports Stadium, yesterday.

Chitembwe, who retraced his footsteps back to the Green Machine, from the Sunshine Boys a fortnight ago, watched as Makepekepe played second fiddle, in the first-half, before balancing the script in the second.

“I think it was a decent game of football, a game of two halves,’’ he said.

“They had the better of exchanges in the first half and I thought we had the better of the exchanges in the second-half. And, what went wrong in the first half was that, maybe, we started a bit flat. We couldn’t find our range, in terms of passing, and I thought defensively we were far too stretched as a team.

“The organisation was not as good as I would have wanted. There were too many gaps between our team lines and, even between team players in one line, there were also huge gaps. But, in the second-half, we did manage to change a few things, when we had to play with three defenders, obviously, trying to create the forward thrust, which I thought in the first-half we didn’t have.

“I am sure we still have a lot of things to do, in terms of seeing improvement in this team, and we would want to improve, as quickly as possible, so that we are up there with the rest.’’

Caps United are still looking for their first win, after they were involved in another goalless draw at ZPC Kariba, in their opening match of the campaign.

Both teams passed the ball well but Harare City had an upper hand in the early minutes, strikers Wilfred Muvirimi and Clive Rupiya coming close.

Valentine Ndaba, who made a rare start, was probably the weakest ink for the Sunshine Boys.
Caps United also had their chances and skipper Phineas Bhamusi forced a fine save from goalkeeper, Kelvin Shangiwa, at the near post, after 25 minutes.

Action quickly swung to the other end of goal after Makepekepe made a mess of their corner kick drill, with Rupiya coming face-to-face with the ‘keeper, but the forward could not execute his shot well.

Caps United got an early chance, soon after the restart, but Shangiwa did well to parry out Augusto’s point blank header, from a low cross, by Valentine Musarurwa. Musarurwa, who had a fine game, patrolling the right wing, in the second half, escaped with a yellow card late in the game, following a dangerous high boot on Spencer Masunda.

The Harare City centreback was taken off on stretcher.

Referee Arnold Ncube, who made a number of questionable decisions, made the right call when he waved away penalty appeals by CAPS United players after Bhamusi fell under the challenge of the goalkeeper.

“At the end of the day, the game belongs to players. You can tell they haven’t lost much of the things that I taught them,’’ said Chitembwe.

“It was obviously going to be a very bad result if we had lost.’’

City coach, Tarisai Kaseke, was happy with their first point of the season, although he felt yesterday’s game was there for the taking. It was a fair result considering that it was my first game in charge and adaptation of players, to the new coach’s philosophy in a space of two weeks, is difficult. The boys could have done better had they been sharp in front of goal.

‘’We created so many chances in front of goal but we failed to score. That’s the nature of the game,” said Kaseke.

Teams

Harare City: K Shangiwa, Z Bizeki, I Zambezi, S Masunda (E Zinyama, 83rd min), K Kapikinyu, V Ndaba (D Masukuta, 57th min), T Tavengwa, E Ziocha, C Rupiya (J Chipangura, 57th min), W Muvirimi (K Musharu, 71st min), E Mandiranga.
CAPS United: S Chinani, B Mpofu, T Jaravani (M Nyenye, 34th min), V Musarurwa, C Mavhurume, R Hachiro (E Karembo, 34th min), T Pio, P Bhamusi, R Chitiyo, L Mavunga (J Thulani, 46th min), C Augusto.