Rhinos to beef up squad

Eddie Chikamhi

Senior Sports Reporter

BASEMENT side Black Rhinos are looking to beef up their team and work on a new strategy to turn around their fortunes when the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League resumes in two weeks’ time.

The army side made a false start to their 2023 campaign, winning one game in 12 outings and are currently languishing at the bottom of the 18-team log table.

They have since roped in former national team assistant coach Saul Chaminuka. But that has not stopped a win-less run stretching 11 games.

Rhinos are set to register five at least new players during the mid-season transfer window that opens in a few weeks’ time.

The team’s secretary-general Edward Mutukwa yesterday said Chauya Chipembere are set to roar again, with improved performances expected in the second half of the season.

The suspension of the Premiership games recently over shortage of venues, has allowed Rhinos to buy some time and attend to the weaknesses that have been exposed in the early games of the season.

Defender Peace Makaha, who left the club earlier this year, is set to bounce back as he has been training with the side. Rhinos hope to boost their defence, which has shipped in 15 goals in 12 games.

Their strike-force is also the worst in the league, with measly three goals to their name in over 1 080 minutes of topflight football. Loosely, they have scored just one goal on average in every four league games, and it’s not good enough.

“We are actually having to start all over again,” said Mutukwa.

“It’s a new start for us and the good thing is that the break gave us breathing time and an opportunity to assess our play. This is the time to look at the areas where we had weaknesses and we have been busy correcting.

“Peace is back and training with the team. The coach still wants to assess him more before making a decision.

“Actually we have five slots available and by the end of the week we should have a clearer picture of what we are going to do.”

Rhinos are set to host giants Dynamos in their next game at Bata Stadium when the Castle Lager Premiership season resumes at the beginning of next month.

The army side was one of the eight teams that used the National Sports Stadium as home before the facility became unavailable to most of the teams to allow the authorities to speed up maintenance work on water reticulation and rehabilitation of the turf.

The PSL last week instructed clubs to submit updated details of at least two of their preferred stadia they want to use for the remainder of the season.

“Since the National Sports Stadium is out of the question for now, we have secured Bata Stadium as our alternative home ground,” said Mutukwa.

“In fact we were supposed to have short-listed both but we are not sure about the National Sports Stadium.”

Bata Stadium, which has been leased to newcomers Sheasham, has since been approved by the PSL and the ZIFA’s First Instance Body after undergoing massive renovations.

Hwange’s Colliery Stadium also got the nod but the other stadiums that were condemned before the start of the season are yet to get the stamp of approval.

Simba Bhora are hoping to open doors at Wadzanai Stadium in Shamva in the second half of the season. The Green Fuel Arena is almost complete.

GreenFuel media and branding officer Merit Rumema said false reports had been circulating that the facility had been homologated.

“Reports that have been circulating on some media platforms are false. Our target was to have all our home games at our own stadium so that our fans around Chisumbanje can benefit. Unfortunately, our stadium must meet minimum requirements to be homologated.

“Our stadium is around seventy percent complete, it’s a work in progress so we can’t totally give time-lines on when exactly we are going to finish.

“But our target was to have our remaining home games played at our GreenFuel Arena and hopefully that will happen. We hope by next season we will have improved certain areas as we are also learning as we go,” said Rumema.

“This is still a work in progress. The Club’s Executive invited some technical experts to have a look at current progress and advise accordingly.

“This was done on Friday the 16th June. The said visit was not an official visit by PSL and the Arena has not been given the go ahead to host any games.”