adminAntipas said the Mighty Bulls, who lost to the same opponents in the competition last year, pose a real “threat” to DeMbare’s ambitions.
Motor Action will be seeking to upstage the Harare giants and atone for the poor start to the year after crashing out of the Confederation Cup at the preliminary hurdle at the hands of South African side Black Leopards last week.
Antipas said the Mighty Bulls will be working on their shortcomings this week and reported no injury worries in his camp.
“We had problems with our defence in the game against (Black) Leopards all because of the injury to our two regular players (Godfrey Moyo and Rueben Machaya).
“For that reason we played with a makeshift defence but now we are back to full strength.
“I can confirm that all the players, who were down with injuries last week, are now also back in training.
“We have a full squad to choose our team from and we will be a threat to Dynamos,” said Antipas.
Organisers have increased the stakes this year with winners expected to walk away with US$50 000 while US$25 000 has been set aside for the losing team.
DeMbare got U$40 000 last year when they beat Motor Action 4-2 in a penalty shootout after the two sides had settled for a 2-2 draw.
The Motor Action coach will be hoping for precision in front of goal as his side has been guilty of squandering the chances that have been coming their way.
Ironically, Dynamos coach Callisto Pasuwa, has also been raising the same concerns, blaming his blunt strikeforce for a lukewarm run in the pre-season.
Pasuwa yesterday said they needed to win the Charity Shield to boost their confidence ahead of their opening game in the Champions League against Mozambique’s Maculmana next weekend.
DeMbare are coming from a run of poor results after losing to Gunners last Sunday.
They had drawn 0-0 with Gunners the previous day.
“We want to have the cup because it is a motivating factor for the players before the start of the season,” Pasuwa said.
“The guys are getting into scoring positions but we haven’t been converting our chances.
“We are working on the technique and there should be an improvement on Sunday.”
The two teams met five times last year with Dynamos having an edge over their opponents after winning on three occasions.
DeMbare won their first meeting in the Charity Shield and went on to record two more victories in the return leg of the Castle Lager Premiership and the final of the Mbada Diamonds Cup.
In-between, Motor Action claimed the first leg of the league games and they ousted Dynamos from the BancABC Sup8r Cup after winning 8-7 in a penalty shootout.
The match had ended goalless.
The Mighty Bulls went on to lift the cup.
Online Reporter