Monomotapa date ASEC

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07 April 2009

By Petros Kausiyo

AFTER seeing off the challenge of Ajax Cape Town, Zimbabwe soccer kings Monomotapa will now face a tougher second round test against Ivorian giants and seasoned African Champions League campaigners ASEC Mimosas. The second round, first leg is scheduled for the weekend of April 17-19 with the second leg encounter pencilled in for May 1-3.

Rodwell Dhlakama’s men will be on the road again for the first leg and will to travel to Abidjan seeking to emulate the feat of Dynamos who upstaged ASEC 2-1 in the Ivorian capital in September last year.

ASEC, who had a preliminary round bye, dismissed Burkina Faso champions Etoile Filante Ouagadougou 3-0 on aggregate, the Ivorians having won the first leg 2-0 at home before finishing off their West African neighbours 1-0 away.

Monoz turned on the magic at Rufaro on Sunday to dump South African Premiership side Ajax on the strength of the away goals’ rule after both sides had been tied 4-4 on aggregate.

The Zimbabwean champions, however, managed to score more goals away when losing 3-2 in the first leg three weeks ago and in Sunday’s game they triumphed courtesy of first half goals by inspirational skipper Mthulisi Maphosa and Charles Chiutsa.

Monoz, however, have little time to relax and enjoy their sweet victory over Ajax as they must now brace for a tougher challenge against an ASEC outfit that will be making their fourth Champions League visit to Zimbabwe since 1998.

The Ivorian giants were first here for the first leg of the 1998 Champions League final against Dynamos, which they eventually won 4-2 on aggregate. They returned to face the popular Harare giants again, but this time in the mini-league phase of the 1999 edition.

Last year, ASEC were drawn in the same mini-league group with Dynamos and the Egyptian pair of Al Ahly and Zamalek and DeMbare built their campaign for a semi-final spot on the strength of back to back wins against the Ivorians.

ASEC will, however, be meeting a different opponent — Monoz — on their fourth date with Zimbabwean football and Dhlakama was yesterday relishing the prospect of meeting the Ivorian giants.

Dhlakama had to briefly put aside the grief of losing his sister Sithembile, who died together with her husband Denis Flackson in car crash in Penhalonga on Saturday morning, to oversee the Monoz game against Ajax and ensured his charges prevailed.

"I only got the news late on Saturday that my sister and her husband were among the six church members who had perished in the car accident in Penhalonga earlier that day. "But I felt I needed to be with the boys (Monoz) for the crucial game against Ajax but I have now joined the family at the funeral,’’ Dhlakama said yesterday.

The Monoz coach, however, felt the second round fixtures in which his team will travel away first could work in their favour. "We are going to ASEC as unknown quantities and we are obviously the underdogs because they are more experienced in terms of Champions League football.

"I think the fact that we are the unknowns and underdogs should work to our advantage, I am quite sure they (ASEC) will probably try to find out how many Dynamos players we have and they will find out that we have none.

"But they have been here so many times and they should not have any problems adjusting to the conditions in Harare, ’’ Dhlakama said. Dhlakama also warned Monoz of an ASEC backlash, arguing that that the West Africans are not likely to take his side lightly given their results against Dynamos last year.

The unassuming coach said they had already begun working on their players’ psychology ahead of next week’s trip to Abidjan. "We should not look at ASEC’s high profile in the African game, we should just take them as any other football team because if we try and look at their status and history, we will be our own worst enemies.

"This is one aspect that we have already started working on in terms of the players’ psychology. "It is a continuation of what we did with them before the games against Ajax where we told them to forget about all that they saw of Ajax on television and not to even consider that Ajax are one of the highly regarded teams in South Africa.

"I would like to think that ASEC are likely to come out strongly at us but we have nothing to lose really. "The pressure is more on them and I am sure the fact that we are starting away will help us a great deal, we just have to apply ourselves well in Abidjan and play a disciplined game.

"I also thought that Ajax were their own worst enemies in that they seemed comfortable with the first leg result and they sat back and allowed us to come at them and I am happy we got the first goal in the first third which was in line with our game plan to attack in phases.

"We also noticed that their midfielders were quicker than us in the first leg and we closed them down early in Sunday’s game with Mthulisi making sure that Mabhudi Khenyeza did not get the kind of room he was given in Cape Town.’’

Dhlakama also paid special tribute to the Dynamos and CAPS United fans and the neutrals who combined with the Monoz supporters to back skipper Maphosa and his troops until the final minute of their battle against Ajax.

"If we manage a good result away in Abidjan and then get the kind of atmosphere and support that we saw at Rufaro on Sunday, then we should not go wrong. "I would to thank the fans for the brilliant support and I think that is what should be the case when it comes to a team that is representing Zimbabwe.

"We might have our different agendas when it comes to club football but we all have a common interest when it is national duty.’’ Dhlakama said their victory over Ajax had helped them revise their Champions League targets as they are now relishing the opportunity of breaking into the money-spinning mini-league phase.

Victory over ASEC will help Monoz write their own piece of history and join seven other elite clubs that will be drawn into two mini-league groups. "When it started out, our target was to get past the first two stages (preliminary and first round) and now that we are in the second round we have renewed our target and we believe we can go all the way to the mini-league stage.

"We will now use our two league games over the Easter weekend to keep working on our shortcomings.’’ Monoz have not yet won on the road in this competition but the Harare side appear to be improving with each outing and could just emulate Dynamos and upstage ASEC in Abidjan.

Nehanda Radio: Serving Zimbabwe since June 2006

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