Online Reporter
Lovemore Dube [email protected]
CASTLE Lager defending champions Scottland who have revived relations between South Africa and Zimbabwe football clubs, have declared themselves ready for the Toyota Cup to take place in the neighbouring country’s town of Rustenburg.
Scottland will face South African glamour boys Kaizer Chiefs in a one-off match on Sunday, a tie which is critical for both teams as they prepare for challenges that lie ahead in the next 10 months.
Chiefs are using the match ahead of the kick off of the Betway Premiership while, Scottland who sit at the apex of the Zimbabwe Premiership are preparing for their maiden African Safari.
As champions, Scottland will take part in the 2026/27 Confederation of African Football Champions League set to kick off in August.
The Harare giants already have established ties with AmaZulu and Mamelodi Sundowns.
The relationship with AmaZulu has seen the local side get a boost in Emmanuel Jalai who is on loan to the defending champions from AmaZulu.
He said as a club they are excited and ready to play Chiefs in a relationship in which the South African former cup and league champions have had their Bobby Motaung visiting Harare to assess the set up at Scottland.
“We are happy as a club which is three years old that we are going to be playing Kaizer Chiefs in Rustenburg.
“We are current defending champions. We had (Sir) Booby himself coming down to assess how we are doing things.
We took him to some of our facilities, he was so impressed to see us invest in infrastructure, for a club which is three years old.
“We have a lot of things to learn from more established football clubs,” said George Munengwa, the spokesperson for Scottland.
He said their dream as a club is to look back after 10 years and celebrate milestones they would have achieved by learning from some of the best clubs.
“We want to be steps ahead by the time we are 10 years old having learnt from more established clubs.
We take it as a great honour to be selected to play in the Toyota Cup ahead of more established clubs,” said Munengwa.
Munengwa described the 1-0 loss to Highlanders as a good call to guard against complacency ahead of the rest of the season and the African Safari. He contended though that the club had been playing good football as demonstrated by their being at the top of the log standings.
The loss yesterday, was their first in 10 games and the first time that they had let in a goal in almost 900 minutes of league football.
“Playing Kaizer Chiefs will be a highly competitive match which is going to prepare for the level at which they are going to be playing in Africa,” Munengwa.
He said Sunday’s match will give an indication as to where they stand as a team.
Colletta Dube