adminHighlanders in the first leg of the Bob ’89 Super Cup at Barbourfields this Sunday, have been facing a serious crisis upfront following the departure of key players Simba Sithole and Rodreck Mutuma to South Africa last week.
But they have since roped in former Hwange forward Allan Tavarwisa, Clive Kawinga from CAPS United and Patrick Khumbula, who is returning from loan.
Pasuwa, who had resorted to using attacking midfielders Murape Murape and new-signing Boban Zirintusa as their strikers in the friendly games they have played so far, said he was glad to have all his players in training.
“I think it’s better that we are training with our strikers available. Farai started training today (yesterday) and I think we will have to assess his fitness because most of the time he sat out while others were going through their paces,” said Pasuwa.
“It’s bad that we have been training without our strikers for the past week or so. Now we have them but the issue of fitness still is a major challenge.
“So, we are trying to work out something so that we improve our scoring rate. Considering that we sold some of our key players recently, we will have to work with the new guys who are coming in.
“Maybe it’s an issue of sorting out the combinations and the goals will eventually come.
“That’s the situation that we have. We are also playing in the Champions League and by the time we play our first game we hope everything should be okay.” Dynamos are now focusing on the Bob ’89 Super Cup Challenge against Highlanders this Sunday as they intensify their preparation for the new season where they are also hoping to put up a good fight in the Champions League.
DeMbare featured in a goalless draw against South Africa giants Mamelodi Sundowns at the weekend and despite their offensive shortcomings they expect another good workout when they face Highlanders.
The Bob ’89 Super Cup will be launched this evening at a fund-raising dinner to be held in Harare.
The organisers had set a budget for this year to be around US$300 000.
The match will be played over two legs with the return set for February 24 at Rufaro.
“It’s going to be an interesting match. Highlanders have been playing very well last year and they have all of their players and probably added more to that same team that was playing entertaining football. So it will be highly competitive,” said Pasuwa.
“We are also coming up. If you look at our game against Sundowns, the overall performance of the team was okay.
“And talking of the fitness levels,I think it’s coming good save for Ocean Mushure and Thomas Magorimbo. Maybe it was because of the injuries they had before that game.
“But we were not satisfied in terms of play because we lost possession unnecessarily. Our attacking wasn’t good enough and these are some of the things that we would want to look into because for the strikers to get the goals they must get the ball from somewhere,” said Pasuwa
Online Reporter