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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
NORMALCY finally returned to the Dynamos camp when the players trained yesterday ahead of their departure this afternoon for Democratic Republic Congo for Sunday’s match against AS Vita at Father Raphael Stadium in Kinshasa. The players were paid their outstanding allowances in the morning when they had a meeting with the board and the executive in the capital.
Part of the money is believed to have come from the club patron, Information Communication Technology Minister Webster Shamu.
And just before 10am, the players arrived at Zimphos grounds ready for the day’s training session.
Morale was clearly high among the players, which was in stark contrast to the gloom of the past few days.
There was a brief address by coach Callisto Pasuwa and his assistant Tichaona Diya also delivered a short message.
Then there was a deafening “DeMbare Woye” war cry from the players before they started their workout.
Dynamos chairman Kenny Mubaiwa said the challenges were quite disturbing.
“This was a big setback since we are facing a very crucial game at the weekend. But we would like to thank Minister Webster Shamu, who is also our patron, for everything that he did,” said Mubaiwa.
“He came here, talked to the boys and helped us out of that bad situation. I am sure everyone is now happy because the boys are back in training. They got all their money which amounted to around US$14 000.
“Everyone knows that we have no sponsor for this competition. That is why we made that decision to travel to Botswana by road.
“So we had made a business arrangement with the boys that they finish this round and then book a date against Kaizer Chiefs in the second round.
“Obviously the National Sports Stadium will be filled to the brim and we had promised to pay everyone what he is owed from the revenue. So we had used the money that we had secured, about US$40 000, to buy air tickets to travel to the DRC but on Tuesday the players insisted they wanted all their money.
“They refused part payment but there was nowhere we could get all that amount at once since we were busy preparing for this trip.”
Mubaiwa said they now expected the team to perform in the DRC.
“Now that the players have their money, it’s left to them to get the desired results in the DRC.
“I don’t know how they will do it after the disruptions because it’s obvious that they lost important time for preparations.
“We will continue to give them the support and hopefully we will do it. But if we fail to qualify everyone will be disappointed,” said Mubaiwa.
The team which is scheduled to depart this afternoon are likely to miss the trio of defenders Partson Jaure and Sydney Linyama and Washington Pakamisa.
“Jaure, we heard from the doctors that he was having problems with diarrhoea and had to be rushed to the hospital. We don’t know if he can make it.
He is at home now and when I called him he was sleeping but will hear from the doctor,” said Pasuwa.
“Sydney (Linyama) has a boil on his thigh and he couldn’t finish training. Ocean is complaining of a (pulled) muscle and Washy (Pakamisa) has a knee problem.
“We will wait for the doctor’s assessment on all these players in the morning and that is when we will have a clear picture of who is not going to make it.”
Returning midfielder Devon Chafa joined his teammates for the first time yesterday after six months on the sidelines.
“His fitness is up there and is better than most players who have been training here and obviously we will carry him,” said Pasuwa.
After the session, Pasuwa said he would rather focus on the positives and not continue to lament on wasted time.
The team will have another workout this morning before their departure.
“We are happy that we trained. We lost two days of training and we will never recover but that is part of life,” said Pasuwa.
Online Reporter