Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
HERENTALS coach Paul Benza has maintained his demeanour and poise, refusing to get carried away by the incredible way with which his team is doing their business.
The Students have been quietly on a vertical trajectory over the past six matches and their stunning 1-0 win over Greenfuel in Chisumbanje on Saturday moved them to within nine points of leaders Simba Bhora.
Benza has always said his aim for this year is to finish in a better position than the one they notched last year when he was promoted from an assistant to head coach following the departure of Kumbirai Mutiwekuziva.
Herentals finished fifth last term, the best by a Harare-based club, and Benza has clearly pinned his mission on attaining a top four finish.
But that might as well be modest for a team flying so high which is now being seen as a dark horse for the Premier Soccer League title itself.
It’s a measure of how good they have been that they have managed to cut the points gap between themselves and the leaders to nine points from 13 inside just five weeks. They would be forgiven to dare dream of the championship, but Benza is not letting those thoughts cross his mind.
“Our target remains the same,” said Benza.
“We finished fifth last year and we should be better than that this season. It’s what we are working on. “The boys have been fantastic in recent weeks and the results have been amazing.
“What we need to do is just take each game as it comes. We can’t be in a position we aren’t on the log.
“We should not allow ourselves to go ahead of ourselves. That’s very simple. In the end, we need to be better than ourselves from last year.”
The soft-spoken gaffer could be benefitting from a number of factors at play in his team.
The club’s philosophy is weaved around familial ties with club owner Innocent Benza (54) and his son Tino almost always occupying the cockpit.
Paul and Innocent are brothers.
“Rather than dragging us back, having some close family relations at the team push us to want to work even harder,” added Paul.
“You look at how my brother Innocent is playing this season, it’s incredible. Tino has also been really amazing after we switched him positions.
“All of us are family and we can’t let the family down, really.”
Benza is also profiting well from having some of the very players he helped groom from the team’s Under-20 developmental team around.
Nevermind Antonio, Joseph Chitavira, Webster Dombo and Brighton Majarira among others have all spent years being developed by Benza.
He added “I think we have that relationship from the first division with most of these players at Herentals. “We obviously know each other well and that makes the job a little bit easier.
“We hope to continue winning. Thousands of students from across the country also look up to the team for inspiration. That’s a huge responsibility we have to fulfil. So, we will fight on to be able to achieve our targets.”
