NAPSA Stars Football Club hosts ZANACO FC in at Nkoloma Stadium tomorrow for a week-11 match of the MTN Super League to be played at 13h00.
Team Head Coach Perry Mutapa has previewed his team’s week-11 match against Zanaco in a Pre-match press briefing held via zoom with the media this morning.
Here is what the coach had to say;
You play Zanaco in a local derby at Nkoloma Stadium tomorrow, your expectations from this match?
Local derbies are always tricky, because form does not count, I know we are on position six and Zanaco are below us, but that does not count, we expect a tough match against Zanaco tomorrow.
You are going into tomorrow’s game coming from a goalless draw against Buildcon. How will that result inspire you to collect maximum points as you face Zanaco tomorrow? What do you aim to change to get maximum points looking at how you failed to beat a struggling Buildcon side?
For us, we are not taking the Buildcon result as a failure. We did our best because it was an away game. I know they will be some teams that will lose to them and the fact that we did not lose is a plus for us. So going in to this game, we look forward to getting maximum points, and drawing the last game is motivation enough for us to win especially that we have gone four games unbeaten.
I know NAPSA Stars has a rich squad, going into tomorrow’s game, any injury concerns?
Austin Banda and Simon Nkhata are out owing to injuries. Apart from those two, we have a squad to choose from, this is football we are always planning to win, it’s a derby and it won’t be easy, but we are ready with the squad we have up for selection.
Last two games you have been playing ‘struggling teams’ Buildcon and now Zanaco. What’s the message to the team not to underrate your opponent?
As a club, we won’t call anyone a struggling team at this point because the point difference is very minimal on the log. We want to get the maximum points for this game and that’s what we are focused on.
Zanaco has won four of their last matches in the 10meetings against NAPSA Stars. Does the recent head to head record worry you going into this match?
Anything which does not concern me when I was not with NAPSA Stars does not worry me. For me, I have to always open a new page and this page does not have that record, so we are not worried about that because that’s in the past. We have new players in Leonard Mulenga, Sydney Kalume, and Augustin Mulenga and so on. So whatever happened in the past does not concern this new NAPSA Stars.
Are you scared that they have two big coaches on their technical bench in Coach Emmanuel Amunike and coach Kelvin Kaindu?
No I can’t be scared. They are two good coaches, very good records of them in the game. It’s good for them and Zanaco. But this is a game which each team has its own tactics, and the best tactics on the day tomorrow will see the best team carry the day.
You will be playing from a better turf this week, is that a relief going into this game?
I think when we talk about a better turf, people get me wrongly. It’s not an excuse but we have to talk about what is happening in both pre and post-match, and the reason behind everything. It’s the same when we talk about injuries, that does not mean we are giving excuses. All I’m saying is we should move away from playing bad pitches and only focus on tactics. We can do better and play on better surfaces in Zambia. But going into tomorrow’s game, our aim is getting maximum points.
Ends