Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo in LILONGWE, Malawi
CAPS United were expected back home last night from their two-week pre-season camp in Malawi, which their coach Takesure Chiragwi, described as significantly transformative.
The Green Machine have been fine-tuning for the upcoming 2026 Premier Soccer League season in the Warm Heart of Africa for the past two weeks.
They got a chance to gauge themselves in three friendly games they played against top teams in the Malawian Premiership.
Makepekepe beat Lilongwe giants Silver Strikers 1-0 and 3-0 in back-to-back sparring games before they forced a goalless draw at army side MAFCO to wrap the friendly series without conceding any goals.
But Chiragwi knows these were just friendlies whose results do not in any way confirm their own strengths or weaknesses, although they do give him huge hints about the same.
“I think for me what is important is that we got to have loads of time together as a team,” said Chiragwi.
“We worked a lot on physical conditioning of players since January when we first gathered for off-season.
“But rarely did we have sufficient time to gather these boys together on the same place to cultivate relations between them.
“That was the primary purpose of this mission. Then we got to work on tactics as well.
“The trip has been such a wonderful experience, and it was good to see players from different backgrounds who we have in the team coming together and showing that they are now one team bound by ethos of the club.
“I am very happy for that, and I think we are almost ready now for the start of the season.” The CAPS United team bus set off for home around the same early hours it left Harare for Lilongwe two weeks ago.
But there was a telling difference between the take offs.
When the team left Harare at around 3am a fortnight ago, nobody was speaking to anyone with players getting into their seats with headphones on.
Basically, they never looked like a team until about six hours later when the bus took a stopover in Tete, Mozam-bique. But on this return trip everyone was talking to each other when one would expect them to be feeling sleepy given the time they woke up.
It’s the kind of atmosphere that Chiragwi wants to see prevailing in his camp as he knows he has to restore Makepekepe’s glory days.
The Harare giants were initially scheduled to play UD Songo of Mozambique on their way back home.
However, that friendly game could not materialise due to different logistical issues. Instead, they were pencilled to head back straight home where they will reunite with other members of the squad, who stayed back after picking knocks.
Midfielder Kundai Benyu, Davison Marowa, Delic Murimba and Kelvin Mangiza didn’t travel with the team as they were given time to fully recuperate.
They have all fully recovered and have been following specialised training regimes to keep in speed with those who were in Lilongwe.
Apart from the injured quartet, CAPS United also signed striker Takunda Benhura this week. The ex-Ngezi Platinum Stars hitman now has to quickly gel in the team, and Chiragwi has this coming week to make all that happen before Makepekepe host newcomers Agama in their Premiership opener next weekend.
