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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
CAPS United . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0
Kabwe Warriors . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1)2

CAPS United might have lost this practice match yesterday but Kabwe Warriors’ coach, Mohammad Fathi, believes the Green Machine are a stronger outfit than the Dynamos side that beat them at Rufaro on Sunday.

The Zambians concluded their two-game tour of Zimbabwe by beating the Green Machine with striker Amuli Amadi scoring either side of the interval at the National Sports Stadium yesterday.

Kabwe Warriors lost by the same scoreline to Dynamos at Rufaro on Sunday.

Fathi, their Egyptian coach who used to coach Highlanders on the domestic scene, said he feels CAPS United were a stronger side than their bitter rivals Dynamos and banked on the Green Machine to challenge for the league title this season.

“First of all I would like to thank the president of the club (CAPS United), Mr Jere Ferai, for hosting the Kabwe Warriors,” said the Egyptian coach.

“We had a nice reception and the place where we slept was very good. As a coach I think that, technically, CAPS United are better than Dynamos despite the result.

“There is no doubt about that.

“I think this team will fight to win the league and no one doubts Lloyd’s ability to win the league and I wish them all the best.

“We have a very strong side and we are planning to win the league in Zambia.”

CAPS United coach Lloyd Chitembwe says his team’s pre-season preparations remain on course despite losing to Zambian side.

Chitembwe, who made six changes at the breather, said he remained happy with his team’s pre-season preparations.

“This, being our first training game, the players fared fairly well but, obviously, there is still a lot of work to be done and I am sure, with a little bit of time, we will strike the right chords,” said Chitembwe.

“We just wanted to assess their physical condition and so we are happy.”

After the breather, Chitembwe introduced midfielders Archford Gutu, Abbas Amidu, Cabby Kamhapa and defenders Stephen Makatuka and Gilbert Mapemba.

He pulled out Dennis Dauda, Devon Chafa, Zvikomborero Biseki, skipper Moses Muchenje, Allen Gahadzikwa and Method Mwanjali.

Chitembwe acknowledged his opponents did better than them.

“They were much quicker simply because they have had so many training games unlike us given this is our first training game and we expected this,” said Chitembwe.

“In the last three weeks we have only been training, never played a single game even between ourselves we never had a 11 versus 11 match.

“The whole idea was not for us to convert chances, we are not at that stage yet. We haven’t worked on a lot of technical issues, we were only working on physical conditioning in the last three weeks.

“We are happy to have a good group of players who are technically very sound.

“We haven’t yet worked on another phase of play, which is the tactics, we haven’t worked on the finishing aspect even the defending aspect.

“These guys were just doing the kind of stuff that we did last year so, although the application was very good, I think the players took responsibility today.”

Team

CAPS United: E. Sibanda, Z. Biseki (G. Mapemba 46th minute), J. Jangano, D. Dauda (S. Makatuka 46th min), M. Mwanjali (A Amidu 46th min), D. Chafa (C. Kamhapa 46th min), M. Muchenje (A. Gutu 46th min), V. Musarurwa, P. Bamusi, A. Gahadzikwa (T. Rusike 46th min), D. Chungwa.