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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter
DYNAMOS forwards will get under the spotlight again tomorrow when the Harare giants host Bulawayo Chiefs in a Castle Lager Premiership football match at the National Sports Stadium.
The title-chasing Glamour Boys go into the match with their tails up following last week’s 3-0 drubbing of Chicken Inn at Barbourfields.
But their coach Tonderai Ndiraya has demanded more from his misfiring forwards who have fired blanks in 10 of the 22 games they have played this season.
Ndiraya was buoyed by last weekend’s win, which came after the Glamour Boys had gone for four games without finding the back of the nets.
“The goals came but I’m still worried about our forwards. Of course, Emmanuel Paga scored, which is good for the forwards so we are looking at the forwards department, that’s where our main worry is.
“We want them to score goals. They’re employed to score goals and they haven’t really done that to our satisfaction. So we hope that they can pick up from last week’s performance,” said Ndiraya.
The Harare giants, along with Herentals, have the fewest goals among the teams in the top half of the table after they bagged 23 goals from 22 outings.
The most worrying thing for DeMbare is that their main strikers, Tinashe Makanda, Evans Katema and Albert Eonde, have not been scoring goals and are yet to find the back of the net, 22 matches into the season. Nigerian Alex Orotomal only opened his account last weekend.
The Glamour Boys had resorted to rotating the forwards in the hope of finding goals and last weekend Orotomal and Makanda, gave a good account of themselves.
“Of course, we are rotating our forwards. Those who started gave a very good account of themselves. They played so well, Tinashe Makanda and Alex Orotomal. So apart from (Orotomal) scoring, Tinashe had an assist. Hopefully, this time they can score goals.
“They remain our worry because we want them to score as many goals as they can as a department because they’re employed to do that,” said Ndiraya.
The DeMbare coach revealed they have been hunting for a reliable forward to beef-up their strikeforce.
They have one day remaining as the mid-season transfer window is set to close tomorrow.
“We are still in the process of identifying the players that we really want. But we just don’t want players, we want quality. So hopefully we can get quality and recommend that to the executive.”
DeMbare bounced back to winning ways last weekend after they had gone four games without winning or scoring a goal. They, however, still trail log leaders FC Platinum by eight points in the championship race. Dynamos have 39 points after 22 games.
“The boys are looking sharp and happy in training and at the same time they’re also looking very confident. But we have also been trying to make sure they don’t get over confident.
“I think that’s what we’ve been really working on this week. When you get good results, the players tend to become over-confident and lose focus.
“It’s been mostly the psychological part of the game that we’re working on to make sure that the players remain grounded and focused.
“I’m talking from experience. So that’s what I’ve been trying to work on and hopefully we can be able to keep them focused ahead of what I can term a very difficult Bulawayo Chiefs. Of late, they (Chiefs) have been getting results away from home. So they can be a very difficult opponent,” said Ndiraya. DeMbare will be without the injured quintet of Emmauel Jalai, Brendon Mpofu, Shadreck Nyahwa, Ralph Kawondera and King Nadolo. They also have to do without winger Bill Antonio who is away in Belgium for trials.
Chiefs coach Nilton Terosso also sounded upbeat following last weekend’s 2-0 win at Tenax. Just like Dynamos, they had gone on a barren spell spanning four games. They are currently 10th on the log standings with 29 points.
“I don’t read too much into previous games when going into new ones,” said Terosso.
“But, of course, it was positive for us, just as it was for Dynamos when they beat Chicken Inn.
“Not only because of the previous results, I think these are two teams that always like to win and always look to play their style of football and maintain their identity.
“Dynamos, of course, are a very difficult team and they are a big club and have been in the title race since the beginning of the season. So they have got their own objectives and I am sure they will play for that.
“We have got ours as well and we will do everything we can to compete and hopefully we will get a positive result, as well,” said Terosso.
Fixtures
Today
ZPC Kariba v Chicken Inn (Nyamhunga, 1pm), Harare City v FC Platinum (NSS), Black Rhinos v Cranborne Bullets (Vengere), Bulawayo City v Herentals (Barbourfields), Whawha v CAPS Utd (Ascot)
Tomorrow
Ngezi Platinum Stars v Triangle (Baobab), Manica Diamonds v Yadah (Vengere), Highlanders v Tenax (Barbourfields), Dynamos v Bulawayo Chiefs (NSS)
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