The Sunday Mail
Sports Reporter
FC PLATINUM coach Norman Mapeza says his side has psyched up for the CAF Champions League campaign despite difficult circumstances the domestic football champions find themselves in.
The Zvishavane miners play Angolan side GD Sagranda Esperanca in the preliminary round, first leg tie in Luanda during the weekend of September 10 to September 12, before they host the return leg a week later.
FC Platinum only started group training on Monday following late approval from the Government through the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC).
They also find themselves without sparring partners as the local game is still in limbo.
Mapeza said he would have loved to make additions to his squad during the July transfer window, but with no football on the domestic scene, such a move would have been ill-advised.
“We all know our situation and we have to be realistic. We haven’t been training and only started Monday.
“We had just played about three games before the Chibuku Super Cup was halted and there has been no league in the country for about one year and eight months.
“But still we have to compete for results. We go into every competition to compete and we want to do so with a positive mind.
“We do not want to be seen to be crying all the time. There is nothing much we can do about the situation,” he said.
The champions have been together for a week now and Mapeza is happy with his player’s level of endurance.
“I gave them a programme to follow at home and I am happy their endurance levels are up there. So far so good.
“Next week (this week), we will work on their sharpness as well as tactical and technical awareness.”
The former Warriors coach will also bank on experience as Pure Platinum Play have retained the bulk of players who featured in recent editions of the Champions League.
Goalkeeper and skipper Petros Mhari, veteran defender Gift Bello, Silas Songani, 2019 Soccer Star of the Year runner-up Ralph Kawondera and chief striker Rodwell Chinyengetere are still available.
“We could also have wanted to beef up our squad but where could we get the players if there is no football in the country?
“We will make do with what we have.”
It will be the second time in three years FC Platinum are playing an opponent from Angola. They were hammered 5-1 on aggregate by Deportivo de Agosto in 2018.
“We will not look much into that . . . We don’t have to think about our opponents that much.
“Their league might have concluded a few weeks ago and we haven’t been playing for a long time, but that doesn’t take away our desire to compete.
“Yes, the reality is there on the ground but we have to face them. If anything comes out, we will then see about it.”
Government, through the SRC, has been giving phased approvals to international assignments but most of the country’s representatives have been ill-prepared due to inactivity.
In rugby, the Sables played Burkina Faso last month under the same circumstances, while the junior athletes recently travelled for the World Junior Athletics Championships in Kenya with little preparations.
Continental women’s football representatives Black Rhinos Queens were similarly affected as they only begun training on Monday ahead of the COSAFA Women’s Champions League qualifier tournament, which kicks off on Thursday in Durban, South Africa.
