Castle Lager Premier Soccer League Kicks-Off
By Perkins Bare
The Castle Lager
Premier Soccer League season kicks-off into action this weekend with
defending champions Chicken Inn start off their title defence woth a
tie against Dynamos out at Barboufields stadium whilst Highlanders
start off their League campaign wuith a tie against Hwange out at the
Colliery. Matchday 1 will start off on Friday with Bulawayo City
taking on How Mine in a Bulawayo derby out at White City stadium and
new How Mine coach Kelvin Kaindu will be looking forward to get his
campaign off to a winning start.
The PSL was forced
to start the League programme late as the football calender for March
was congested with two clubs being involved in continental action
whilst the national team the Warriors also had back to back Africa
cup Of Nations Qualifiers to play against Swaziland. The 2016 season
finally kicks off ands we go into this season with two of the biggest
clubs in the land Dynamos and Highlanders once again having new
coaches in Paulo Jorge Silva for Dynamos and Elroy Akbay for Bosso.
FC Platinum also
take on stubborn boys Tsholotsho FC out at Mandava and Norman Mapeza
will also want to get his campaign to a good start especially the
additions that were made.
Chicken Inn are
obviously a team to watch out for going into this season by virtue of
them being the defending champions and also beacuase of the fact that
they were able to maintain the bulk of their squad from last season.
They were also able to add some vital players to their squad in
Teenage Hadebe who came in from Highlanders. They already do have a
strong squad with the likes of Passmore Bernard, Danny Phiri, Moses
Demera, Tafadzwa kutinyu the regular felons are all there folks and
this is why I`d say they should go into this season as favourinte to
retain the title.
FC Platinum will
also go into the season as favourites as they fell short but they do
have a strong squad which should be able to do the business. The
presence of Kelvin Kaindu out at How Mine alos makes them favourites
as he made an early charge for the title with Triangle but fell
short. Kaindu surely knows how to charge for the title but he then
just falls short but his time around it will be different with him
having the resources at How mine which has allowed him to bring in
the players he did.
Dynamos are going to
go in as usual faviourites by virtue of them being perennial
champions and they withnthe size of the club itsle Paulo Jorge Silva
goes in with the burden high ex[pectations as the fans expect nothing
less than the league title. Caps United are still to get it together
with their squad and their shake-up of the adminstration which saw
them changing their kit sponsor. Bosso on the other hand should be
content with a top four finish and any higher expectations than these
would be unfair to the coach cause Highlanders has done nothing in
terms of investing into their squad despite them losing their best
players from last season.
The teams who should
feel pressured are of course Harare City which has been investing a
lot on players and also How Mine who roped in a total of 7 players
with a Zambian also being lured by the presence of their new gaffer
Kelvin Kaindu. They brought in the likes of Kudzai Chideu from Dongo
Sawmill, Marshal Machazane from WhaWha, former FC Platinum player
Qadir Amin and also Pasca Manhanga. Kaindu was confident that his
team`s preparations had gone well “Our preparations have been going
on very well. The new guys have settled in very well and the gelling
has not been bad,” Kaindu said yesterday. “The guys have done
well and we are likely to use some of them tomorrow [today]. We are
ready for the season and we are not taking anything away from
Bulawayo City who are coming from Division One” Kaindu said in an
interview with a local daily.
Dynamos and
Highlanders also go into this season with new gaffers once again
after they both sacked their coaches last season and it is left to be
seen on the field of play as to which team made the wiser choice.
Dynamos hired Portuguese coach Paulo Jorge Silva who already made
headlines in his scuffle with journalists over his papers. There was
immense resistance last season from the Highlanders faithfuls after
Cosmas Zulu and Amin Soma Phiri had somewhat rescued a season to
forget for the Bulawayo giants scooping up the Easycall Cup. Bosso
opted for a Dutch coach in Elroy Akbay who will go into this season
with a relatively young squad after they lost most of their players
in Teenage Hadebe and Knox Mutizwa who signed for Bidvest Wits.
Bosso however has a
strong junior policy which then gives them the liberty to still
maintaion a decnt squad despite them losing their best crop evry
season. Inm their squad released it included four strikers Ralph
'Banolila' Matema, Knox Mutizwa who`s stilol to link up with his
team, Gabriel Nyoni and theyalso added two strikers in the juniors’
quota, Prince Dube and McCarthy Dube.
The pre-season
friendlies saw Dynamos going for a tour to Malawi with Caps United
also hosting the Zambian clubs. As for the tournaments there was not
much of action and Highlandersd are still in the ZNA charity shield
which muight be a good sign for them whilst Chicken Ionn also showed
that it wasn`t just a fluke after they ended Sundowns unbeaten run in
the Caf Champions League first leg encounter.
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