Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Augustine Hwata
3 October 2008
Harare — DYNAMOS captain Murape Murape has issued a passionate plea to his teammates to raise the bar when they face Cameroonian champions Cotonsport Garoua as history
beckons for the Harare giants in the African Champions League.
The Zimbabwean football kings meet the West Africans in the first leg of the semi-finals at Rufaro on Sunday and need to get a healthy win ahead of the reverse fixture in two weeks' time in the cotton-growing town of Garoua.
The Cameroonian champions arrived in Harare on Wednesday with their Ivorian-born French coach Oumbledon Guedon Alain taking a cautious approach to the clash on Sunday.
When the tournament started in February this year, Murape said not many people believed his team had a chance to progress this far in Africa's prestigious club football tournament.
But here they are among the top four clubs in Africa and Murape has issued a battle cry to his troops to raise the bar.
"When we started the campaign, few people expected us to reach the mini-league stage.
"A lot of questions were being raised over our financial capabilities to fulfil the assignments.
"Most of the questions were on the so-called administrative boobs over the registration of players.
"Many people will recall that we had a limited squad for the early games after some players who were registered failed to come and play for us. Now we have reached this far with the same players while others have joined in. So we can now go even further and I hope that we'll win convincingly on Sunday."
Murape wants Dynamos to win by at least a three-goal margin.
"We have beaten some of the highly-rated teams like Zamalek, ASEC (Mimosas) and Etoile du Sahel in this tournament so far.
"Nothing much is known about Cotonsport, but the fact that they reached the semi-final speaks volumes of their strength.
"We should not go into the semi-final under pressure to win, but to do the best we can," said Murape.
DeMbare players, Murape said, needed to give their best on Sunday and, hopefully, the result would be a positive one.
"We have to go out there and play our best football so that we enjoy ourselves.
"There is no need to put pressure on ourselves because we might end up making mistakes.
"I am aware that this is another level of the competition, higher than the mini-league stage, and so it calls on us to do more to get a result.
"But we should not panic and at the same time we need to avoid being complacent thinking that because we have beaten Zamalek and Etoile, then we can easily go past Cotonsport.
"At least we should win and I hope everyone will work hard within the team so that we get the result.
"A good win will ensure that we carry a healthy lead when we go to Cameroon," said Murape.
He also called on stakeholders to help Dynamos in their hour of need.
"If all things were well, we should be in camp right now than coming from home to train for such a crucial game.
"Being in a closed camp helps us to build that family bond as a team, but it's unfortunate we have not done so.
"There are challenges within the team and we will continue to engage our coaches and the executive. At this stage of the competition, we no longer represent Dynamos, but the whole nation.
"I appeal to other companies to come and help our executive so that we fully focus on the game on Sunday," he said.
A veteran of many battles with Dynamos, Murape also took a swipe at Zifa programmes officer Jonathan Musavengana, who is alleged to have brought a Cameroonian spy to the Dynamos training session on Tuesday.
"When we play as Dynamos or any other team in an international game, we are defending the sovereignty of Zimbabwe and it's unfortunate for someone like Musave-ngana to sell our secrets to visitors.
"If I had my way, then there would be an investigation into Musavengana's conduct and Zifa would have to take appropriate action.
"As one of the Zifa officials, we do not see anything wrong with him coming to our training session, but for him to bring a spy is another thing," said Murape.
However, Musavengana swept to his defence yesterday and believes Dynamos coach David Mandigora and team manager Nyika Chifamba, who were on Spot FM, castigating the Zifa official on Tuesday, were looking for scapegoats.
"I have worked hard to ensure that everything is well for Dynamos in the Champions League.
"It's true that I went to Rufaro and was coming to the pitch through the tunnel, but as soon as I realised that Dynamos were training we retreated.
"I told the guy that we could not proceed because Dynamos were training and as a football person I know that some people are not allowed at such training sessions.
"We never spent anything more than five minutes as we retreated to our car and had it been that the groundsman was nearby, we could have left the stadium.
"But the gate was locked and that's where Chifamba caught up with us," said Musavengana.
He said he would never work against any team representing Zimbabwe "because even my national pride will be at stake".
Dynamos will train this afternoon and Mandigora will continue to pray that the midfield duo of Desmond Maringwa and Wonder Sithole will pass a fitness test.
The injury-prone pair has been training since last week.
Dynamos will be without first choice goalkeeper Willard Manyatera, but the Harare giants should not be losing sleep as they have enough cover in Zondai Nyaungwa who was called into action on the 2-0 win over ASEC Mimosas at Rufaro at the start of the mini-league.
Nyaungwa got injured during yesterday's training session when he slammed his body against the post as he tried to save the ball.
But club secretary Tawanda Murerekwa revealed last night that he had spoken to the goalkeeper and he was fine.
"It was a minor scare because he slammed his body against the post, but he told me that he is alright and there is nothing to worry about."
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