Chronicle Editor
Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
TRIANGLE coach Taurai Mangwiro says his side now faces an uphill task of trying to redeem their sinking Castle Lager Premier Soccer League campaign as well as retaining the Chibuku Super Cup.
The Sugar Boys bowed out of the Caf Confederation Cup after falling 3-4 on aggregate to Mauritanian champions FC Nouadhibou on Sunday.
Triangle’s qualification to the group stage of the Caf Confederations Cup would have brightened Zimbabwe’s chances of gaining an extra berth in each of the continental club competitions next year.
However, the Sugar boys couldn’t do enough to get the country a second slot in the two Caf club competitions despite winning 3-2 at Barbourfields Stadium, as they had been dismissed 2-0 away a week earlier.
Triangle had a great debut in the African safari, but fell on the last hurdle before the lucrative group stages.
They beat Rukinzo from Burundi 5- 0 on aggregate in the preliminary stages before accounting for Tanzanian side Azam 1-0 in both legs in the last round.
The Lowveld outfit has, however, failed to replicate that continental form in the domestic league where they now find themselves perching on 11th place.
They face Harare City in the quarter-finals of the Chibuku Super Cup in Harare tomorrow.
“We have to shift focus now to the league and the Chibuku Super Cup. We were in this African competition by virtue of winning the Chibuku Super Cup, so we have to make sure that we win it again this year and have a second bite of the cherry,” said Mangwiro.
“It has been quite a good experience considering that this was our first time to compete in this competition.
What l have observed from the games that we played is that there is need for us as a nation to ensure that we have facilities that are in line with Caf standards because it has been very taxing using Barbourfields as our home away from home.
“When we went to Azam, you could see the role that the fans can play. We were missing that in our games.
“For example, Sunday’s game was the biggest game in the history of our team and this is a team that is representing the country, but how many people were in the stands? On the technical side, we learnt a lot of things, especially on game management when you play away from home, because our biggest fault in the first-leg of the tie against FC Nouadhibou was failure to handle match officiating when playing away,” Mangwiro said. – @innocentskizoe
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