Pasuwa blasts his players

By Petros Kausiyo

DYNAMOS coach Callisto Pasuwa has blasted his players for taking a lackadaisical approach to their work after the majority of them missed training allegedly to continue with celebrations for their big triumph over old enemies Highlanders in the TM Pick n Pay Challenge Cup.

DeMbare thumped Bosso 4-1 at the National Sports Stadium last Saturday to claim the inaugural TM Pick n Pay Cup which also came with rich pickings after the club pocketed a US$60 000 winners’ cheque.

Pasuwa yesterday read the Riot Act on the champions warning his players against getting carried away by their latest victory over Highlanders, which he fears could see them lose their focus ahead of the Premiership marathon’s home stretch.

The 44-year-old coach watched with some huge degree of satisfaction as Dynamos maintained their eight year dominance over Highlanders with a convincing show that was spiced up by a brace from Simba Sithole and a goal each from Roderick Mutuma and Washington Pakamisa.

Pasuwa not only left the National Sports Stadium a happy man following a fine performance which with better precision from his forwards — some of them from one-on-one situations with Bosso goalkeeper Ariel Sibanda — could have yielded more than the four goals they reaped.

The DeMbare coach is also hoping to build on the fine showing against their biggest enemies on the domestic front and extend it to other teams in the league.

Dynamos will resume their league duties with a difficult assignment away to FC Platinum at Mandava where their bitter city rivals CAPS United were handed a humiliating 6-0 defeat last Saturday.

While Pasuwa might have been impressed with what he saw in a game in which a rejuvenated Tafadzwa Rusike reminded the domestic game of his qualities, he was certainly not an amused man yesterday.

The national Under-23 coach blasted his players for adopting a “wrong attitude to their work altogether’’ and said he had been surprised to find that his charges had decided to relax and instead extend their celebrations for winning the TM Cup, “forgetting that they have a job to do’’.

“It is always nice to win silverware and add some cups to our trophy cabinet but it’s the supporters that I expect to continue with the celebrations even for two weeks and not the players.

“When we regrouped on Monday after the match against Highlanders we had only two players indicating to the medical team that they had received knocks during the final and we trained well.

“But as soon as the PSL announced that there would be no league games, we had players coming the next day with all sorts of excuses about having injuries from the same game and that is not acceptable.

“At this level of the game you expect our players to take a professional approach to their work and we have to continue working hard even if there is a PSL break to make way for the Chibuku Cup matches,’’ Pasuwa said.

The three-time championship winning coach also reckoned that Dynamos had set new benchmarks for themselves by destroying Bosso at the National Sports Stadium last Saturday.

“If anything, we also made it a bit difficult for us in the way we beat Highlanders because we have to maintain that kind of level and you do not achieve that by relaxing.

“Sadly our players seem to think that when the PSL say there are no league games then there is no need to train that week . . . no that is a wrong attitude and I have told them that we cannot accept that.

“We should be using the break to work on our shortcomings, there are some mistakes that we have been making.

“More importantly, we need to retain our physical condition. Beating Highlanders 4-1 does not mean that we are now a perfect team, yes the supporters and everyone else might be praising us for the way we won the cup but I believe there is still a lot to be done,’’ Pasuwa said.

The Dynamos coach also reminded the Glamour Boys family that it was not the first time that his team had recorded a big victory over Kelvin Kaindu’s men.

On February 24 last year, DeMbare thumped Bosso 4-0 at Rufaro in a Bob 89 Cup tie to seal a 6-1 aggregate victory.

As was the case last Saturday at the National Stadium it was supposed to be a close contest but it ended up looking like a one-sided affair as the Harare giants turned on the power to seal a big win against Bosso in that Bob 89 Super Cup at Rufaro.

“We should recall that this is not the first time that we have beaten Highlanders by a big margin, we did that last year and soon after that game some players bought cars and lost their focus and in the end we had a very difficult start to the season and I don’t want us to lose our focus that way again.

“I think the game that we face from now on are even more difficult than the TM Cup and no team would like to drop points at this stage of the season so we have to be at our best and have the right condition to last the distance,’’ Pasuwa said. The Herald