Chitembwe praises Mukamba

By Austin Karonga

CAPS United coach Lloyd Chitembwe was full of admiration for midfielder Denver Mukamba after he scored the match- winning goal during yesterday’s Harare derby against Dynamos.

Mukamba, who is on a season-long loan from DeMbare, punished his parent club when he combined with Brian Muzondiwa to net the winning goal in the 68th minute.

This was Mukamba’s second goal in only his second start for the Green Machine and it is a remarkable turnaround for a player that has been dogged by allegations of truancy and drug abuse.

“The execution from Denver (Mukamba) was exceptional but that’s what you expect when you have experienced players and they did manage the game very well,” Chitembwe said after the match.

“Denver is quality and we expect him to deliver such kind of performances especially if you give him more of the freedom to express himself in the way he feels but it has to be in the team’s context; the tactical context.

“I think he is really relishing the moment and we give him freedom and the boys are there to help him; I’m sure he enjoys it.”

In their last outing, Makepekepe had lost 2-1 away to Triangle and yesterday they started the match on the back foot but Chitembwe was pleased with how they responded in the second period.

“It’s obviously a great feeling; it’s good for us to win a derby but I would want to admit that it was a difficult game for us especially in the first half,” he said.

“I thought that Dynamos did a very good homework and I strongly believe they did well in the first 20-30 minutes.

“They managed to find gaps between our team lines and it was very difficult to manage the game until halftime but I thought the application from our boys in the second half really turned the game for us.

“I believe that the application was very good; we were much more compact and even our ball movement was much quicker and even the goal was a great move.

“That is typical training stuff, we usually do that in training and also the quality of the goal was brilliant.”

Dynamos coach Lloyd Mutasa is now under pressure to keep his post as the Glamour Boys are now winless in their first seven matches of the season with only three points.

Mutasa, however, refused to blame the defeat on his decision to jettison Mukamba out of the club.

“Obviously when you say I don’t want a player but as a father, I do not want to wish him bad.

“This is football and this has happened worldwide,” the DeMbare coach said.

“Players move from one team to the other; they might have not performed in this team but when they move to another team, they rectify their mistakes.

“I would like to say well done to…Mukamba, he has scored a crucial goal for CAPS United and we are Dynamos and I do not have any regrets of…Mukamba moving to CAPS United.

“As Dynamos our whole idea is that we have the personnel we want as a team.” DailyNews