FC Platinum date African champions
AMBITIOUS Zvishavane Premier Soccer League side FC Platinum will this morning play a training game against continental giants Mamelodi Sundowns in Rustenburg, South Africa.
The platinum miners, 2016 Castle Lager Premier League runners-up are in South Africa for a pre-season camp and playing Sundowns will give coach Norman Mapeza an idea on how ready his players are.
On the other hand, Sundowns who have set a mid-season training camp in NorthWest Province are hoping that playing Zimbabwe’s ambitious side will prepare them for the second half of the Premiership campaign which resumes next week.
The match between Sundowns and FC Platinum is being organised by M Sport Management.g
“FC C Platinum will play against Sundowns in Rustenburg.ustenburg. It’s a friendly game that will take place on Saturday. It’s promising to be e a very competitive game,” M Sport Management’sagement’s Michael Ngobeni told SoccerLaduma. erLaduma.
Thee Brazilians occupy seventh spot on the he table, six points adrift of leaders SuperSportrSport United. They however have five games in hand due to their involvement in the CAF Champions mpions League last year.
Due ue to the need to catch up on games Sundowns face a busyusy fixture list that will see them play eight gameses in 31 days starting with a league clash against Bloemfonteinmfontein Celtic at the Molemela emela Stadium on February 8
In a telephone interview from Johannesburgnnesburg yesterday, Sundowns’ spokesman esman Thulani Thuswa said the defendingnding Caf Champions League championsmpions are taking the training game seriously,usly, hoping to build relations with FC Platinum.latinum.
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“It is true that we are having a training game against FC Platinum in Rustenburg, North-West and the game will start at 10AM. This is an important match for us as the coaches want to shrug off rust from the midseason break and they also want to prepare players for the league as well as the Champions league which will be starting shortly.
“Besides working on the technical aspects of the game, this match is meant to foster relations between our Zimbabwean counterparts and ourselves,” Thuswa said.
Sundowns should expect a competitive match from FC Platinum who took along 27 players for the camp, including four newly signed players — Bret Amidu, Gift Mbweti, Talent Chawapiwa and Agrippa Murimba.
They have retained the bulk of their players from last season. Among those to look forward to this season are Soccer Star of the Year finalists Winston Mhango and Petros Mhari, former national team striker Charles Sibanda and the Moyo twins Kevin and Elvis.
-@ZililoR