ZPC KARIBA . . . . . . . (1) 1
TRIANGLE . . . . . . . . . . . . 0
ZPC Kariba coach Darlington Dodo is excited about the direction his team is taking after beating Triangle at the National Sports Stadium yesterday to record their second victory of the season.
Tino Chiunye's first half goal was all ZPC Kariba needed to secure a win that saw them move to sixth on the log standings, with seven points from their opening four matches.
The winger's brilliant performance merited the goal as he looks to reinvent himself following unsuccessful stints at Caps United and Dynamos.
Along with Kudzanai Dhemere, another player who failed to rise to the occasion at Dynamos, and Leeroy Murape, they have been ZPC Kariba's driving force this season.
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But it was Chiunye who was singled out for praise by Dodo yesterday after yet another polished performance by the midfielder.
“The boy is coming up. It's all about discipline, listening and appreciating what the coaches are telling you. If you are a player and you do that, you become a better player. You grow and enjoy your game and this is exactly what Tino is doing and I'm very happy for him.”
ZPC Kariba were all over their opponents in the first half, and with a bit of luck could have easily scored more than three goals.
Chiunye was one of the culprits and missed a sitter moments before he broke the deadlock.
“It's good to gain three points. We started well this season and the confidence is growing. The boys are now believing and this is exactly what we wanted. We just wanted a good start then we take it from there,” Dodo said.
He added, “We won the match in the first half because we came with a very good attitude. All these other games, our first half was not very good but today we were probing the opponents, we attacked and created opportunities some which we could not just convert. If we had converted our chances in the first half, we could have scored more than one goal.”
Triangle, who suffered their first defeat of the season yesterday, had a slow start to the match but improved in the second half. However, they never really created chances to trouble the ZPC defence despite bossing possession in the second stanza.
Their assistant coach Thomas Ruzive said: “I can’t complain much considering this is a new team and we were playing away from home. The guys did very well but we just slept on the wheel for a moment in the early minutes.
“The guys' approach to the game in the early minutes was wrong. They were very slow in their reaction.”
Triangle are on eighth position, with five points from their opening four matches.