Shakes sighs with relief
Shakes sighs with relief
Posted: 2009-10-19 08:15
Hosts Zimbabwe got their 2009 Cosafa Senior Challenge campaign off to a winning start with a 3-0 win over Mauritius at the Rufaro Stadium in Harare on Saturday.
Goals from Cuthbert Malajila (two) and Method Mwanjali gave the scoreline an emphatic look, but the Islanders were not without chances of their own in what was a keenly contested fixture.
A near capacity crowd saw the Warriors claim a first home win this year and they can now seal their place in the quarterfinals if they beat Lesotho at the same venue today (Monday).
Swaziland also scored well-deserved 2-1 victory over Seychelles in the second round. Their victory sends them to the top of Group B pool making them favourites to proceed to the quarter final stage of the competition.
Before that, they have to collect maximum points that will ensure they swiftly progress to the next stage in the next encounter against Botswana.
The result gives Swaziland coach, Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba a huge sigh of relief as he can now sit in the comfort zone and watch the threeother teams sweat it out for the coveted three points.
Although they went down on Sunday, Seychelles still stand a chance of coming out second best in Group B if the statements by coach, Richard Holmund are anything to go by.
Responding to questions from journalists after his side’s defeat, Holmund blamed laxity in his charges.
“When we scored the first goal, the boys thought all was now well and they slackened a bit. We need to get rid of that mentality in our next game and go all out to win our next game,” said Holmund.
Mashaba, on the other hand, was an elated man after full-time.
“The boys played according to the strategy that we set for ourselves at the beginning of the game. We saw that our opponents were defending deep inside their own half and we then decided to use the big guy Mfanufikile Dlamini, to dribble past the defenders with the hope that they would bring him down inside the box.
“That strategy worked for us and we utilised his strength and he did score using that trick,’ said Mashaba.
For Comoros and Botswana, it is back to the drawing board again.
Comoros coach Abderemane Chamite hid his team’s failure to put together a perfect act behind the fact that he had outlined earlier in the tournament they were minnows coming to the tournament to learn the ropes.
Botswana coach, Stanley Tshosane had no kind words for his players.
“We completely outclassed our opponents in the entire match. We were all over them throughout the match, more seriously in the first 20 minutes of the match. We created the chances and simply could not put them away. I am disappointed.”
: 2010-10-20 06:08
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