ZPC beat Bulawayo Chiefs

Philemon Jambaya

ZPC Kariba Coach Darlington Dodo showed his prowess when his side beat Bulawayo Chiefs at National Sports Stadium yesterday.

The two teams had gone to halftime on level terms but however, Dodo was tactical when he came back for the second half.

Asked on what he had told his players at halftime, Dodo told reporters that in the first half, they were losing position unnecessarily and his opponents were congesting the midfield, leaving gaps on the wings and they were supposed to capitalise on that mistake.

“It was a question of us losing possession of the ball unnecessarily in critical areas in the first half,” Dodo said.

“We were also not very compact in midfield, so that is where we sorted out in terms of player deployment because we were giving them a lot of space. They were adding numbers in midfield, trying to overrun us in that area, so we realised that and came up with a better strategy in the second half.

“We did not really open up the game, but when we were in possession of the ball, we released the wide players for counter-attacks and it paid off because they were leaving a lot of spaces in the wide areas.”

Despite dropping points, Bulawayo Chiefs Coach Lizwe Sweswe was impressed by his boys.

“The boys played very well serve for that mistake on transition, but it’s still work in progress,” Sweswe said.

Chiefs missed several chances with Last Jessie, who was introduced 20 minutes before the final minute, missing at least five clear chances and Siswe wasn’t much disappointed with that.

“Remember, this is only the second game of the season for us. There are a lot of things to work on, especially in terms of the conversion rate,” Sweswe said.