adminEddie Chikamhi Harare Bureau
Caps United 0-0 Flame Lily
DEJECTED Caps United coach Mark Harrison yesterday gave his players a tongue lashing on the pitch and then sent them home on a short vacation after the Green Machine produced a tepid performance when being held by lowly Flame Lily in a Castle Lager Premiership tie at the National Sports Stadium.
The Briton was clearly not happy with his side’s display after they dropped two points on their return home to the giant stadium against the expectations that had been raised by back-to-back wins in their last two assignments away from home.
Makepekepe struggled on the afternoon and they owed much to their 19-year-old goalkeeper Chris Mverechena who played his heart out to keep the Harare giants in the match.
Newboys Flame Lily, to their credit, were more purposeful and played better football.
The Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services side, who fired their coach Nesbert Saruchera last week, put their woes aside and looked like they could walk away with a win with better finishing.
Yesterday they were under the guidance of caretaker coach Backleyfield Chivenga.
While Chivenga took a lot of positives from this match, his opposite number Harrison said he was not entirely happy with his players’ casual approach.
Caps United won their last two matches by identical 2-0 margins away at Dongo Sawmill and at Tsholotsho.
But they found the going tough against a Flame Lily side that gave as much as they got.
And Harrison said their application yesterday was wrong and blamed the attitude on the euphoria that has followed the recent developments in their camp which brought about financial guarantees for the players who had literally gone through hell in the opening four months of the season.
The much travelled coach bemoaned the two points lost rather than cherish a point gained and sat his players down after the match to give them his piece of mind before coming for the post-match interview.
The league will now take a two-week break to pave way for national team assignments and Harrison said his players will also take a short break.
“It’s not acceptable losing two points here against Flame Lily. I don’t mean to disrespect Flame Lily but we should’ve performed and we didn’t. If we had performed we could’ve taken a result, but we didn’t.
“We didn’t show enough desire to win the game today. We were too laid back, we were too easy, we were too loose and there were too many things wrong there,” said Harrison.
“We never played from the first whistle to the last. I just told the players that all the euphoria and what’s been going around in the last weeks has cost them.
“You know they’re feeling great about themselves now, all of a sudden they’re being paid bonuses etc. I think it just caught up with us today. I’ve just told them now that, we’ve a break of two to three weeks and I’ve given them few days off to rest. They need to go back to their families, they need to go and relax, get it out of the system, come back to work later in the week and then we start again.”
Caps United were so poor, they were chasing the ball from the first whistle. Flame Lily were at them as early as the fourth minute when their captain Gift Phiri delivered a perfect cross which was headed over by MacMillan Chigora.
The Green Machine goalkeeper Mverechena had a busy day and he did well in the 17th minute to punch out Zimbabwe youth international Edwin Madhananga’s curling left-footed shot from a free-kick.
Mverechena was again called to action in the 62nd minute when he parried another shot from Madhananga and then displaying another piece of agility to collect Brighton Chandisaita’s header from the resultant corner.
It was mostly quiet on the other end of goal. Makepekepe’s lone striker Leonard Tsipa was always dwarfed by the defence of veteran Chandisaita and Effort Kopeni and the introduction of Roderick Mutuma brought some life in the second half but most of the Caps United shots continued to be misdirected.
Instead it was Mverechena who lit up the afternoon with a series of fine saves which earned him the club’s first man of the match award. The goalkeeper also took home wads of cash from the supporters who showered him with money after the final whistle.
Flame Lily’s interim coach Chivenga was happy with the point but felt his side still has more work to do during the two-week break.
“I’m happy with a point but there’s still more work to be done. It’s a blessing in disguise because we need to beef up a little bit more. We’ve a lot of grey areas that we need to fill up. So we take this break as a blessing and work towards getting something to better our team,” said Chivenga.
Teams
Caps United: C. Mverechena, H. Zvirekwi, R. Pfumbidzai, C. Mudzambwa, S. Makatuka, G. Nyirenda, M. Muchenje (V. Musarurwa, 73rd minute), G. Mangani, T. Mahori (R. Matova, 61st minute), K. Nyamupfukudza (R. Mutuma, 41st minute), L. Tsipa
Flame Lily: E. Hamandishe (P. Chigumba, 46th minute), G. Phiri, B. Chayambuka, E. Kopeni, B. Chandisaita, T. Huwa, E. Madhananga, M. Muponda, W. Mukudo, M. Chigora (P. Chinyama, 71s minute), W. Muronda (M. Demera, 64th minute)
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