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Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
CHAMPIONS FC Platinum rounded off their pre-season preparations in style in Masvingo at the weekend and will now look to warm the stage up for the upcoming 2023 Castle Lager Premiership football marathon when they host Bulawayo Chiefs in the season-opening Castle Challenge Cup at Mandava this coming Saturday.
They played two games against second-tier side Masvingo United and won both. Not that the result was so important, the games were key for the platinum miners to assess their team as well as their style of play and combinations ahead of the new season. The platinum miners should also have been thrilled with four goals coming their way from different scorers.
Thandolwenkosi Ngwenya and new boy Jarrison Selemani scored in the 2-1 victory while Juan Mutudza and Perfect Chikwende were also on target in the second game which they won 2-0.
Norman Mapeza’s men, who have won the last four league titles on the trot, are among the favourites in what promises to be a highly competitive campaign.
The Zvishavane side have maintained the core of the team that won the title last season with four games to spare. They added only three new players to beef-up their stocks. The platinum miners signed former Dynamos and Cranborne Bullets winger Jarrison Selemani, ex-Triangle United fullback Misheck Ngwenya and Chikwende, who is returning to Zvishavane after two years.
The trip to Masvingo at the weekend summed up the work they have put in the last two months. “We started our preparations, I think, in the second week of January,” said Mapeza in a recent interview with The Herald. “We had a week in Zvishavane, we had two weeks in Bulawayo and it was much to do with team bonding and then we came back to Zvishavane to continue with our preparations.
“The preparations have been going on very well and I am happy when the guys came back from off season they were all looking okay because I managed to give them something to do off-season especially the last few weeks of the off-season. So the guys were looking okay.
“Then coming to the new guys, we only brought in three new players. But as for someone like Perfect, I think everybody knows about him. We brought him because we just wanted him to help those youngsters. “We have got guys like Thando (Ngwenya). They need guidance at the end of the day. So Perfect, I am sure, will give us another dimension in terms of attack.
“Then we brought Selemani from Cranborne Bullets. He is someone comfortable playing any position upfront. Then we have Misheck Ngwenya, a left-footed player. He was playing for Triangle.
“He can play as a left back; he can play as a cetreback. So those are the areas which I thought needed reinforcement. That’s how far we have gone with our transfer business,” said Mapeza.
FC Platinum are set to get the ball rolling for the 2023 season when they host Bulawayo Chiefs in the Castle Challenge Cup at Mandava this Saturday.
The game, which features the league champions and the Chibuku Super Cup winners from the previous season, will pave the way for the new campaign which gets in full swing in two weeks.
The Premier Soccer League said the cheapest ticket for children in school uniform has been pegged at US$1 while the rest of the spectators will fork out US$2. The VIP ticket has been set at US$5 for the Challenge Cup.
FC Platinum have dominated the Castle Challenge Cup after winning all the editions since the tournament was first played in 2017. They have three Castle Challenge Cup titles to their name.
The Zvishavane side lifted the inaugural edition when they beat Harare City 2-1 at Mandava in December 2017. They defended it in 2018 with a 2-0 win over Triangle United, again at Mandava.
The Castle Challenge Cup was not held in 2019 after the PSL resolved to shift the football contest, which from the onset had served as the last gig of the marathon, to a season-opening event.
FC Platinum faced Highlanders in the 2020 edition and emerged 2-0 winners. They pocketed $400 000 winners’ prize with Bosso taking home $250 000.
However, the organisers are expected to announce revised prize monies because of the currency fluctuations in the last few years.
Bulawayo Chiefs earned the Castle Challenge Cup ticket against four-time Premiership champions after beating Herentals 1-0 in the final of the Chibuku Super Cup last year.
Online Reporter