HARARE - Dynamos coach Lloyd Mutasa insists his charges have a lot of positives to take despite defeat to Zambian side Buildcon in an international friendly match ahead of the start of the 2018 Castle Lager Premiership campaign.
Up until Saturday’s 1-2 defeat to Buildcon, the Glamour Boys had enjoyed a relatively strong pre-season in terms of results especially after they were crowned the ZNA Commander Charity Shield winners at the expense of giants CAPS United and Highlanders.
While the result against Buildcon undoubtedly failed to flatter the Harare giants, Mutasa said he and his technical team could take plenty of positives away from the encounter.
Apart from signs of lack of fitness from some of the team’s senior players Mutasa noted that there were a lot of improvements from numerous individuals as well as the additional competitive game time afforded to them.
“I think it was an important game for us; we needed such kind of competition before the season starts,” Mutasa said to the Daily News.
“I think we are still lagging behind in some certain areas like fitness to the majority of the senior players who have been absent due to circumstances beyond our control.
“But overally, I would say there were a lot of positives to pick from this game.
“I was not happy with the result, of course, but I am happy with the process with players sticking to the way that we want to play. There’s certainly a lot to take out of it moving forward.”
While Mutasa has relied on youngsters during the pre-season, on Saturday he started with most of the senior players who include new signings Raphael Manuvire, Jimmy Tigere and Marvelous Mukumba who were joined by skipper Ocean Mushure, Obey Mwerahari, Quality Kangadze and striker Christian Ntouba.
Mutasa is also hoping to have more practice matches during the course of this week after the Premier Soccer League postponed the start of the season with one week.
The season was scheduled to start next weekend but has since been moved to March 17 while fixtures for the new season are now expected to be out tomorrow.
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