NAPSA Stars Football Club are set to host Red Arrows FC in a match week-18 of the MTN Super League. These two teams met in the first round and battled to a barren draw.
Coach perry Mutapa of NAPSA Stars was joined by Coach Kalililo Kakonje who is the goalkeeper trainer at Red Arrows to preview this match in a zoom Pre-match press briefing held with the media this morning.
Here’s how both coaches previewed this match;
Q.NAPSA Stars FC will host Red Arrows tomorrow, what are your expectations?
Coach Perry; It’s going to be a tough game, we should not forget we are playing champions. Arrows are one of the best teams, if not the best, and I think this fixture has come to be one of the biggest fixtures in our league, two good teams playing a passing game and battling it out, I think it’s going to be a tough game.
Coach Kalililo (Arrows) ; It’s going to be an entertaining game, it’s never easy playing NAPSA Stars. They came back in the Super League and they’ve done well for themselves. Yyou can never take them lightly at any given day, so it’s going to be a tough game for us. Considering that we also struggled with form towards the end the first round and we are looking forward to coming back, we are hoping tomorrow’s game is what brings us back to our winning ways.
Q.You had three weeks break, How much work have you put in during the break? This is the final stretch, what plans have you put in for the second round?
Coach Perry; As much as we would like to start the second round on a better position, unfortunately the second round does not give us enough chance to rectify our mistakes .So for us it was a blessing in disguise because the moment you learn your mistakes going into the second round, I think you will try to work on those mistakes and this is what we have been trying to work on in the three weeks break. The break gave us a chance to do most of the work we did not do. And remember this is a team coming from the first division, so we must adjust in the Super League. We know where we are lacking, and we have worked on that, and I hope we are able to turn the tables around.
Coach Kalililo; We have done enough as a team, Like I said, we struggled a bit with form in the last matches. If you look at our statistics, we scored 19 goals and conceded 16, so our record is very good and that is what we are working on, to defend better than we did in the first round and score more goals. I think that will help us. And the break was good for us especially for the pychological welfare of the players, we touched in that area and I believe this will help us going into the second phrase and I hope this helps.
Q. We are in the January window, are there any areas you are looking at beefing up?
Coach Kalililo; We have identified a few players yes, but we are still assessing them to make sure they’re the right players to sign in those positions. As at now, we can not confirm that we have signed anyone, but I can confirm that we are assessing some players.
Coach Perry; We are also assessing, we identified where we are lacking and I hope we conclude by the coming week.
Q. The previous meeting between you two ended in a draw, how do you look at tomorrow’s game?
Coach Perry; We have not had a lot of goals in our matches with Arrows, but believe me this is one good fixture to watch in the Super League because both teams are ball playing teams. The lack of goals may show that the game was not exciting but always expect fireworks in this fixture. We both didn’t do well towards the end, but we are not very far from the top teams. I know they’re training for a win, and we are equally doing that so it will be an entertaining match.
Q. Do you think both teams have what it takes to win the super league? And the match will be officiated by Janny Sikazwe, what is your reaction to this?
Coach Kalililo; Yes we feel we still have a chance to defend our title as Arrows. We are not very far from log leaders Power Dynamos, just eight points. We have 17 matches to go and if we play and win consistently, we still have a big chance of winning the league.
We set targets for ourselves at the start of the season and defending the title was one of them so we still want to meet our targets.
On Janny Sikazwe, he’s a professional who has represented us well as a country and for me having him officiate our match as his last one is a great Honour for us, we will support him and wish him well in his future endeavors.
Coach Perry; Yes, I think we have a chance of winning the title. But you don’t win a title in the first round. Our aim is to be realistic and we will take each game as it comes because we are 11th on the log and this is a team coming from Division One, so the most important thing for us now is to stabilize and see where we find ourselves after playing at least five – 10 games, then we can set the targets from there because this is football.
On Janny Sikazwe officiating our match, I think there was not going to be a perfect match for him to officiate than this one because I believe this is a game that will be great to watch looking at how both teams are looking for a win. It will be an honor for both teams looking at his caliber and the fact that he is coming from officiating at the World Cup.
Q. Any injury concerns in the teams as we head into this match?
Coach Kalililo; Yes, we missed a lot of our key players in the first round . We had a long injury list in the first round, and I’m pleased to say that most of those players are back in training. Some are still recovering but at least it’s not a long list like it was before.
Coach Perry; We are ready, the team is ready and all up for selection. We are spoiled for choice.