HIGHLANDERS have indicated that they will use the first few games of the season to measure their strength before talking about winning the Castle Lager Premier League championship.
They begin that campaign with a tricky home game against ZPC Kariba at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday.
Assistant coach Antonio Torres yesterday admitted they, indeed, promised to land the title this year but will need four to six games to determine if Highlanders will be in the title race.
“When you are a club the size of Highlanders, we need to go to every game to win and collect maximum points. We don’t know the kind of changes that the other clubs have made or how they are playing, but we don’t care much about them. We know that Dynamos brought in a number of players; we know that they have good players but we don’t care about other clubs. Of course, when you dream you have to dream big and last season we told everyone that we will be fighting for the championship,” Torres said.
“We said it but one needs to understand; we are not competing alone so we need four, five or six games to understand the true value of the other teams. After that then we can then say we are in the race to fight to be champions. We have been working hard in pre-season to keep our dream alive. Now we focus on the first game and if we don’t win the first game, it does not matter since we are dreaming about big things. The big things will come with what we achieve week by week.”
Highlanders last won the league title in 2006.
Keep Reading
- Zimbabwe’s economic problems are largely self-inflicted
- Civic groups express concern over govt silence on Nyathi murder
- Rhinos test for new Bosso coach Brito
- Rhinos test for new Bosso coach Brito
Torres said they don’t have much information about their opponents ZPC Kariba, who have made wholesome changes to their playing staff.
“We know that ZPC Kariba has made some changes, but we don’t have much information about them but more importantly we have to focus on ourselves than them because we have the talent to beat them. It is a question of us being serious against them. It will be our first game and maybe a game of uncertainty because it is the first game but be that as it may, we hope the boys play well and provide a good performance,” he said.
Madinda Ndlovu will be in charge on Sunday in the absence of head coach Baltemar Brito, in Portugal to attend a Uefa A refresher course.
- Follow us on Twitter @NewsDayZimbabwe