Caps eye foreign bonding trip

BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA

HARARE football giants Caps United are planning to tour neighbouring countries as part of their pre-season preparations with a trip either to South Africa, Zambia or Mozambique a possibility.

The Caps technical team has designed a programme for their pre-season preparations which has been submitted to the team management for consideration.

Head coach Darlington Dodo said they would at some point need to tour one of the neighbouring countries as part of their pre-season preparations. The Caps coach, however, stressed it would be subject to approval – depending on the availability of resources.

‘Definitely, we would need at some point to tour one of the neighbouring countries for purposes of bonding and other aspects of the game including tactics. We have a programme that we have already submitted to management, but it’s subject to approval. Our choice of the country we would want to tour will depend on the availability of resources,” Dodo said.

The Caps coach said they would prefer any of the neighbouring countries with the exception of Malawi which he said had substandard stadia.

“We would prefer any of our neighbouring countries besides Malawi because we think their stadia are not up to standard. We can only talk of the tour when we know the actual dates we will be starting the season,” he added.

Traditionally, Caps have, however, been touring Malawi over the years as part of their pre-season preparations.

Caps are set to kick off the season with a virtually new-look squad after several players left the club. Some of the players who left include reigning Soccer Star of the Year Joel Ngodzo, midfielder Dominic Mukandi, skipper Hardlife Zvirekwi, goalkeepers Prosper Chigumba and Chris Mverechena, Carlos Rusere, Dominic Chungwa and Valentine Ndaba.

The Harare giants have, meanwhile, brought in more new faces such as the former Harare City trio of Ishmael Wadi, Tatenda Tumba and Munyaradzi Diro Nyenye.

They have also been joined by Carlos Mavhurume, Brendon Mpofu and Munyaradzi Kunyarimwe and Leeroy Mavhunga.

Goalkeeper Wallace Magalane joined from FC Platinum while Tatenda Munditi left Ngezi Platinum Stars for a new challenge at Caps.

The Green Machine are also waiting to sign more new faces with at least three Nigerian players expected to come to Harare for a two-week assessment period.

The Caps leadership is expected to unveil the new players once they have completed the signings of all their targets for the new campaign.

Caps were close to winning the championship last term having spent the better part of the season leading the standings, but a 3-2 capitulation away to Ngezi Platinum saw them handing the initiative to FC Platinum, who eventually lifted the coveted silverware when they edged them 1-0 on the final day of the season.