The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
BARBOURFIELDS Stadium is the venue of one of the biggest matches on the domestic football scene when Highlanders collide with Caps United this afternoon in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match.
While Highlanders were busy plotting the downfall of their rivals, not much activity was taking place in the camp of the green half of the capital city as Caps United players stayed away from training for the bulk of the week over unpaid dues.
Caps United
The players only fine-tuned yesterday before making the trip to Bulawayo.
Amid all the chaos in the Caps United camp, Highlanders assistant coach, Joel Luphahla believes that Makepekepe will rise to the occasion. It is not the first time that there has been trouble in the Green Machine camp over money issues.
The same occurred early this year, which saw the Lloyd Chitembwe-coached side suffer seven defeats in a row.
“We have been reading in the news about what’s happening at Caps United but I just want to say to my boys that we must not read much into what’s happening there because Caps United has always performed better, especially when they are going through these challenges so if we think they are not training, we relax and think it’s going to be a walk in the park then we are going to have a big challenge,’’ said Luphahla.
Lloyd Chitembwe
He believes Caps United should be motivated for the match after the upheaval from the players who should be out to prove a point. Bosso head into the clash without Adrian Silla who joins the injured Andrew Tandi, Toto Banda and Mthabisi Ncube.
Also out of today’s encounter is central defender Peter Muduhwa who sits out after accumulating three yellow cards and is therefore suspended. Luphahla said while they are limping, they cannot make excuses and have to do what they have to.
“So at the moment, we are just limping but we’ve got no excuses, we are Highlanders, we work with what’s there and we are very happy with what we have.”
Highlanders however, have their vice-captain Nqobizitha Masuku back from trials in the United Arab Emirates and Luphahla feels the midfielder’s presence brought calm in last Sunday’s Chibuku Super Cup first round encounter against Triangle United, a match Bosso won 1-0 to book their place in the quarterfinals of a competition they won in 2019.
Peter Muduhwa
Former Highlanders midfielder, Joel “Josta” Ngodzo is expected in the Caps United lineup having recently made yet another switch from black and white to green and white. Should he feature, Ngodzo has a point to prove to Baltemar Brito after the Portuguese national offloaded him last month.
Another player who should give the Bosso defence a torrid time is the league’s top goal scorer William Manondo who has found the target 14 times this season.
Baltemar Jose de Oliveira Brito
It is not known which Caps United will walk into the Emagumeni turf this afternoon because of the turmoil in their camp but one thing for sure is that it promises to be exciting match. The first meeting of the season between the two ended in a 1-1 stalemate at the National Sports Stadium in March.
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