CAPS UNITED. . . . . . . . . . . . . (0)0
SCOTTLAND. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(0)2
SCOTTLAND coach Tonderai Ndiraya shared a sense of relief after his side came to the party and expressed itself in a manner befitting the huge investment that has been made into their team to dispatch a fighting Caps United in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match at Rufaro Stadium yesterday.
The newly promoted side created a glut of chances and should have been out of sight by the time the two teams went for a break.
However, the side fluffed most of the chances with Panashe Mutimbanyoka, Walter Musona and Tymon Machope all liable.
They got their two goals early in the first half through Machope before Sadney Urikhob landed the killer blow late on.
Ndiraya could not hide his excitement after the win, particularly at the back of a backlash in their laboured 1-0 win over Triangle in the season's opener last week.
"Well, I'm excited. We were playing a very good team. And if you play against a good team, a big team for that matter, and then you get a very comfortable result, then that means you are doing well," Ndiraya told reporters after the match.
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“The boys did very well today. If you recall, I said these boys needed recovery. Last week, the boys were just recovering. And we saw the performance today completely different from the Triangle game. This is the second game in the league.
“It's only the second game in the Premier League. And if you put up a performance like this, what more can you ask from the team? So, there was a lot of improvement from the game last week. Hopefully, we can keep improving."
Ndiraya lamented the chances squandered by his team and expects the striker to improve as they play more matches together.
"First half, we created so many chances. Some of them were one-on-one, but we could not take those chances. So, in the second half, that was the message,” he said.
“Let's continue to do what we were doing in the first half. What was important was creating the chances, but we needed to be precise. Precision was lacking in front of goal.
“Second half, we saw that happening. But, of course, Caps United, being a good team, naturally, when you are down, you take the game to your opponent. And then I thought we defended well, very, very well. And it was obvious that we were supposed to hit them on the break. We did that, and I'm sure the second goal came from transition."
He said that his team was fuelled by the criticism they received last week.
“They performed badly for reasons that I mentioned last week. They received all sorts of criticism. Then today, they came under a lot of pressure.
“But they produced that good performance. So, what more can you ask as a coach? Good show from the boys. Maybe for our supporters, maybe for the team, for the directors and everyone.
“You know, the investment that was made to this team is quite huge. And we can only repay the directors by getting good results. So, I'm happy for everyone, happy for the team."
What was key for the championship-winning coach was their dominance in the final third.
“I think we were very good in the final third. I think we created so many chances. In the end, we scored those chances.
“Caps United, if I recall, I think we were largely in control of the game, both the first and second half. Caps United didn't have many chances, so to speak. So, I think we were better in the final third than Caps United."
Caps United could have fashioned out an equaliser when they were 1-0 down but Jayden Bakari failed to beat Talbert Shumba after they came eyeball to eyeball.
That was the turning point in the match, but Caps United coach Lloyd Chitembwe was disappointed with the way they conceded.
“I thought it was a decent game, with decent performances from both teams," Chitembwe said. “Yeah, but I thought we could have done better in terms of the output, which is the result. I thought as far as the goals we conceded, I thought we could have done much better to try and avoid that. Both goals were out of some defensive errors. I'm looking at the first goal, how we did concede that goal? Loss of possession in the middle of the back and we never recovered from there.
I'm sure it was after a series of 3-4-5 passes, they ended up scoring and that's not permissible. I thought we could have done much better in that scenario. And then of course the second goal, I thought the situation was 4-2 and we could not contain the two opponents in our box and that again is not permissible. I think it was as a result of two very serious mistakes and that's how we lost it."
