CAPS United . . . . . . . . . (0) 1
Herentals . . . . . . . . . (0) 1
CAPS United coach Darlington Dodo’s future at the club hangs by the thread with the Green Machine having won just one match out of eight attempts which is suffocating their Chibuku Super Cup campaign in the early stages.
Yesterday Caps United failed to collect maximum points in a must win encounter against Herentals, in the end settling for a share of points at Baobab Stadium.
Herentals’ Gibson Chinobva missed from the penalty spot just 10 minutes into the game before Brighton Majarira made sure after the Students were awarded a second spot kick in the second stanza.
Caps new acquisition Clive Augusto converted from the spot after the Green Machine won a penalty of their own but despite the point the Green Machine look likely to drop out on the group stages.
With Harare City winning 3-1 against Yadah in the other Group One tie played after the Caps, Herentals match, Caps United do not have it under their control and would need to rely on other teams’ results in their last two group matches.
Dodo remains optimistic about his team’s chances although he conceded that yesterday’s result was a setback.
“The first one (penalty) I don’t think they deserved it though we were a bit far from the situation, but everybody could see even yourselves that there was nothing. But that’s how cruel football is sometimes,” Dodo said after the match.
“We really want to progress and that is our intention that’s why we are trying to push. Today (yesterday) I think we tried very hard to get a good result and it did put a lot of pressure on us as a result we did not really play our game. We were forced to shift and suit what Herentals was doing.
“In the end there were certain times when we were panicking in trying to deal with the second ball. We ended up changing everything, instead of us playing our passing game, we ended up also playing long balls and here and there it distorted the rhythm of our game.”
On the other hand, Herentals coach Kumbirai Mutiwekuziva conceded that the penalty miss cost them.
“Missing a penalty was something very difficult to receive, particularly among the players. They felt really down but it’s part of the game,” Mutiwekuziva said.
“We did not give up though, we tried to motivate players from there and they did just that. They played well today although the scoreline does not reflect that we were the best team. We should have at least got the win.
“There are a lot of positive things that I’m seeing.”
Caps United need to win against ZPC Kariba and Dynamos for them to entertain any hope of progressing to the next stage.-newsdya.co.zw
