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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter

CAPS United left-back Innocent Zambezi says his preoccupation is to help the Green Machine attain their season goals.

The wing-back, who is also comfortable playing at the heart of defence, has already endeared himself to the Makepekepe fans just two games into the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season.

His arrival at the Harare giants wasn’t as grand as that of Godknows Murwira and Kelvin Madzongwe yet he could be the jewel in the crown for Makepekepe.

He was part of the process that engineered Makepekepe’s second goal in their 2-0 win over Manica Diamonds on the opening day of the season and he played his heart out in their goalless draw against Ngezi Platinum last Saturday.

With Makepekepe under siege for most of the afternoon at Baobab, Zambezi rarely ventured forward in this match.

But he took the credit for clipping the impressive Walter Vuwa, who was the biggest threat to Makepekepe for the entire afternoon.

Vuwa gave Murwira a torrid time in the first half and when he switched flanks in the second, he was pinned down by Zambezi much to the amazement of the CAPS United faithful.

But, the 27-year-old has rarely been mentioned in the discourse.

For him, all that doesn’t matter.

“My job is very simple. I joined CAPS United to help them achieve their aims. I know my responsibilities. I have to do what my contract says which is to give total service to the team,”said Zambezi.

“I am grateful to the CAPS United fans who have since embraced me. Some of them call me to just say thank you for the contribution.

“That pushes me to work even harder. What matters at the end of the day what we do to achieve our aims.

“CAPS United is a very big brand and they deserve the best. This is a team that should fight to win trophies due to their stature. We are coached by the most decorated CAPS United son (Lloyd Chitembwe) and that for us is a huge inspiration.

“It’s something that looks simple but it rarely happens. As players, we feel challenged and we should fight hard to achieve with this team.

“I believe we have a strong squad that can compete with the best in the league. The most important thing to do is to keep the focus.”

Zambezi knows without Chitembwe he would probably be playing in Division One right now.

Having been nurtured at Dynamos juniors, Zambezi was signed by Harare City Cubs in 2018.

The team loaned him for two years at TelOne in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League.

With Chitembwe appointed the Harare City head coach in 2019, he requested that Zambezi retraces his way back to the municipal team.

And Zambezi was one of the best players at the club before they were relegated last season.

Upon the expiration of his deal at the end of last year, Zambezi joined Makepekepe to reunite with Chitembwe.

Makepekepe play ZPC Kariba at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday as they look to stretch their unbeaten run in the league to three this season.

Zambezi believes winning all the home games will give the Green Machine a good chance of finishing the marathon strongly.

“Look, this is just the beginning of a lengthy marathon. We have 32 games before the season comes to an end. It’s the whole year ahead. We are in summer, we will go into winter and then summer again while the season is still on.

“But I think to do well in the marathon, we need to turn our home ground into a fortress. CAPS United is a big team and they are capable of doing that.

“We won our first game at home and drew away in the second game. We should collect maximum points in our next home game. Home advantage matters a lot and we should defend the territory with honour.” It will be an interesting battle between Zambezi and ZPC Kariba winger Tino Chiunye as the two friends are the first set of players to sign under a new agency BG Sniper.

The latter are a new kid on the block and they will be looking forward to the duel of their first clients on Sunday.