Herentals ready

HERENTALS are looking to savour the opportunity and cause major upsets in the upcoming mini-league.

Despite some teams bemoaning playing in empty stadiums, head coach Kumbirai Mutiwekuziwa said they are ready.

“Playing in an empty stadium is going to be a very big advantage particularly for us as a young team which is still growing because normally when we play with big teams like Dynamos and CAPS United who have a huge following our players are intimidated by the environment which is created by the twelfth man.

“We have formulated a good competitive squad and we are ready to roll, we have brought in a lot of young players to the team.

“Our nickname says it all; we are “the students”; we believe in developing young talent. When football kicks off, you will see some of the new exciting players we have just promoted including Clinton Jimu a good forward, and Desmond Mapudzi just to name a few,” said Mutiwekuziva.

He admitted that he will miss the departure of their key player Richard Hachiro who crossed to join CAPS United.

“Yes we will miss Richard but it is normal in football that players come and go, so we are happy for him that he has joined a bigger club which is CAPS United and we take this as a positive because our main goal is to develop players, even Juan Mutudza who joined Dynamos we are happy for him,” he added.

Mutiwekuziva revealed the plan to avoid relegation and stated that the resumption of football with a cup competition is an advantage to his side.

“As a team we are doing all we can in our preparations to avoid such a scenario of 2019. Luckily there is no relegation in the coming minileague. It will be a cup competition, and our history in cup competitions is very good,” he said.

Herentals were put in Group A with premier soccer league giants Caps United, Dynamos , Yadah FC and Harare City.