THE 2022/23 season is finally ending tomorrow and NAPSA Stars Football Club is scheduled to visit Prison Leopard FC at President Stadium in their last match of this season.
NAPSA Stars Head Coach Perry Mutapa has previewed this match and has also provided a brief review of the season in a Pre-match Press briefing held via Zoom with the media this morning.
The media got the chance to interview the coach on various issues and this is how the briefing was.
The Coach’s expectations for the last match of the season tomorrow against Prison Leopards,
Being the last match, every team would like to go out with a win, irrespective of the position you are on, so this applies to us, our match against Prison Leopards will be a good game.
How the coach feels failing to finish second on the log and what went wrong, especially after being hopeful.
We did our best and being in second position at some point was a bonus to us, and we had ambitions and wanted to come out second because we were in it. But that did not happen, and it does not mean something went wrong. We have had a wonderful season and have still have the potential of coming out in third position after this season. We know we can finish sixth if things do not go our way, so this has been a great season for us.
If the coach and the team is disappointed with the season,
No, we are not. I am very happy with what has happened. And in life you need to pick up your lessons and learn from them. This is a team that is coming from Division One, won ABSA and got promoted so our main objective was to stabilize, and we found ourselves competing for the second slot, so we had to try our luck which did not happen, but I am still happy with what we have done.
Maybe this has shown us that we were not ready to play continental football and the teams that have qualified have earned and won the right to represent the country. We must do better next season and overcome all challenges we faced this season. This has given us a platform to make the correct decisions as a club from administration to the players on the pitch. So, we will plan for next season and have no regrets with this season.
The highlights for this season. The lowest and highest moments,
The lowest moment was when we were one of the best teams, creating chances but did not have the right players to score, but we needed to bring in players like Adams to score and this made players like Musonda Kapembwa to work even harder.
The highest moments for us are that of being where we are now, we are the third team that has conceded less goals apart from Power and Forest Rangers. We have conceded 24 goals, Power 14 and Forest 23 so this means there is a foundation for us to build a team from.
How the coach describes the environment at NAPSA Stars in his last two seasons,
It has been okay but there’s always room to improve. From Division One, winning ABSA, getting promoted and almost finishing third, the project we have planned for is moving on nicely. We are happy and just need to work on a few areas we are lacking in because there is always room to improve in everything.
Performance of the goalkeeping department. Mukwanya doing well but no much action from Jackson Kakunta, where the coach thinks Kakunta needed to improve or where he went wrong.
It’s not easy to change in goal, Rodwell did well, and he pushed to be the best. The coming of Jackson made him push even more and this is the competition every team needs.
How the coach anticipates the season to go with several young coaches coming up,
It will be very competitive considering that it was a very competitive season. You could see teams like Zanaco, Warriors, Nkana getting in danger of being relegated. Most teams will beef up their teams. Our generation of coaches have done well and now how do we maintain is the question, so it will not be easy, but I am sure everyone will do their best.
Areas the coach feels his team needs to awaken from the statistics the team has hard this season,
We have done well both in scoring and defending, our statistics are looking well. Our worst losses have been against GBFC and ZESCO this season so that is also a good sign for us. We failed to score in a few games at least, we managed to beat big teams this season. But despite all this, we can do better in all areas, especially in midfield because we have been scoring in that department, but we failed to do so this season. Our strikers also need to do better in scoring more goals, so they get double digits.
We have used almost everyone this season including those we released in December. In the goalkeeping department, the only player who has not gotten a chance is Philip Banda so he’s the one we will start in goal tomorrow so that we can also give him a chance.
How the team is taking this Prisons Leopards game, if everyone is relaxing going into this game since they have nothing to lose,
This is an important game for us, and we want to finish third yes, but also this is a start of our planning for next season, so we are trying to use everyone that did not have a chance hence starting Philip Banda in goal for tomorrow’s game.
About the team’s poor performance away from home, scoring less goals away,
Yes, we have done poorly even out of Lusaka, we have analyzed this, and we are working in this area to do better. If we won even two games away, we were going to finish second. So, we will work on it.
About the performance of defender Fredrick Mwimanzi since joining the Club on loan from GBFC.
He has been one of the best players for us and in the league as well. He has jelled so well with the rest of the team, and we are definitely looking at him as one of our key players next season. But also, he has had a good outing with us because he enjoys the tactics and how the team plays so we know he suits being with NAPSA Stars.
About the awareness campaign for the season to attract the fans into Heroes stadium.
It’s one of the scores we have done this season. Heroes has been one of the best turfs for us and we just want to thank our Media and PR team for the great job to bring the fans to the stadium. The fans have been amazing, and we just want to say thank you to them for being there for us this season and for being marvelous.
About the injury concerns heading into the last game.
Zikiru has been out, we have missed him for the last four games.
Leonard Mulenga also injured, and we are not considering anyone with a slight know and we want them to come fresh next season.
The coach has also wished Power Dynamos FC and FC MUZA well, as the two teams represent Zambia in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederations Cup respectively.