adminThe writing was on the wall that the Harare giants were once again doomed in the competition this year, after they had crumbled to a 0-3 defeat at the hands of CA Bizertin in the first leg in Tunisia.
A banner displayed by the DeMbare fans on the Vietnam stand aptly summed it up as it read: “Zvavakutoda minana for DeMbare to win 4-0”.
Cliff Sekete scored in time added on to give Dynamos a 1-0 win but the victory counted for nothing as they bowed out 1-3 on goal aggregate and they now have to focus on the domestic game with the immediate assignment coming tomorrow when they meet Shabanie at Maglas.
Murape is the longest-serving member in the current squad Dynamos but he believes his pair of 33-year-old rickety legs should be able to carry him for another dance in the African safari before the end of the 2014 season.
“As long as I am fit, I am going to keep on playing. I should work hard and encourage the younger players to put more effort and gain confidence in their abilities,” said Murape.
“I will be around maybe until next year and because I have a contract that runs out in 2014, I hope to see it through.”
Pasuwa said they need to plan for the Champions League now if they are to make an impact next time.
“We have learnt a big lesson. We lost a number of our star players especially on the offensive side hence you saw what was happening in front of goal,” said Pasuwa.
“We could go into the attacking third but we couldn’t keep the ball or put it behind the nets. (Next time) we will need to plan ahead.
“If we want to play Champions League again we have to plan now so that next year the team will be solid.”
Murape said they need to focus on the domestic scene now. “I am happy that we have managed to avoid defeats in the league so far. We have two draws and the team is relatively new and we are still gelling but I hope we will win more games.
“The league is a marathon where we have to play 30 games and we are confident that we will be challenging for honours and defend our league championship.
“It’s our 50th anniversary so it will be something special if we win the league,” said Murape.
But while Dynamos have the ability to win the Castle Lager Premiership, it is the way they are crumbling on the African Safari that has been a cause for concern and Murape said the main problem was that there wasn’t any continuity, in terms of players, at the club.
“I think as long as we can retain our key players, we will rise again to be one of the African giants,” said Murape.
“If we look at 1998, the team reached the final of the African Champions League mainly because we had almost the whole team that had played in 1997.
“In 2008 we reached the semi-finals and we had used the entire team that had won the league in 2007.
“So from now on I think we need to keep our best players in the system if we want to do well in the Champions League.
“The opponents we will be playing in the Champions League are champions from their leagues and that means we will be playing the best in Africa.”
Over the past year, Dynamos have lost goalkeeper Washington Arubi, Denver Mukamba, Simba Sithole and Rodrick Mutuma to South African clubs while David Kutyauripo and George Magariro crossed to join Premiership rivals.
During the match on Sunday, Dynamos created more than half a dozen chances but failed to convert and Murape said such sloppy play was uncalled for at this level of the competition.
“We need to work hard as a team and put more effort. If there is need to do extra work at training, then we should do it to perfect our finishing and also in terms of pushing forward,” said Murape.
“At this level of the competition we need to utilise the chances that came our way. We created chances that could have won us the game because we had about four, five or six chances that were clear.
“Unfortunately, we could not utilise them and we should go back to the drawing board to learn to bury clear chances that come our way, even a little chance sometimes could be enough to punish our opponents.”
Murape said they made life difficult for themselves in Tunisia three weeks ago.
“I think we lost the game in Tunisia in the second half where we allowed them to score three goals and it was always going to be difficult for us to score three goals at home,” said Murape.
“But we had confidence that if they could score three goals at their home ground, then we could also score three at home but we failed to utilise our chances. I think we got more chances than what Club Bizertin created in Tunisia.
“However, they managed to make use of their few chances at home while we got plenty of chances and missed.”
Murape also played a big part to cool down the tempers of the fans after Vietnam erupted, following a controversial off-side call, and rained missiles on the field.
“When fans threw missiles, I went into the ‘war zone’ to appeal for calm and never thought of my safety. I wanted the game to progress because the stoppages could disrupt the rhythm that we had.
“They are our fans and we are like a family. Besides, throwing missiles may have repercussions on the club in the form of fines,” Murape said.
Online Reporter