Terroso shifts focus to Chibuku Cup

Curtworth Masango

BULAWAYO Chiefs coach, Nilton Terroso, is now focusing on bringing cup glory to the Ninjas after a fruitful weekend in the league.

His men collected three points in a win over ZPC Kariba in a Castle Premier Soccer League match at Luveve.

Chiefs face the same opponents, in the first round, of the Chibuku Super Cup at Luveve this coming weekend.

The country’s premier knockout tournament returned to its traditional knockout format for this season.

Last season’s edition was played in a mini-league format.

ZPC eliminated Bulawayo City, after a penalty shootout, in the preliminary round.

Terosso said the Cup game is going to be different from the league match.

“The Cup game will be different as I will expect them not to sit back so much because one point doesn’t count in the Cup.

“They would want to win from the start.

“They will be taking risks and doing everything they can to win the game.

“We will play the same way with the same quality.

“I hope to bring new fresh legs because they deserve to play and I think, in the last four weeks, we didn’t maintain the same line-up due to injuries and suspensions.

“It is always difficult to put other players ahead of others when they are all performing well.

“It’s a nice headache though.”

Terrosso said their win over ZPC was a hard-won victory, which needed a lot of tactical changes, throughout the game.

“We were unbelievably good in the first half.

“We completely dominated the game with the ball.

“Lots of opportunities, patterns and combinations going into the final third.

“We were unable to finish and finalise our play and we went to half-time a little bit frustrated knowing we have played well to win the game.

“When you play against teams, which don’t let you play in a way that allows your strategy to flourish, you end up dropping deeper, but our quick ball patterns and circulation were able to counter that.

“In the second half, the game became more disjointed as they became more direct, playing two in the front, who never dropped and caused us to play second balls.

“The gaps in between the midfield became bigger and bigger.

“When we changed that, we created more chances and managed to score.

“I think in the end we deserved to win,” he said.