Dembare, Sundowns in stalemate

Dynamos 0 - 0 Sundowns
MAMELODI Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane was impressed by DeMbare defender Partson Jaure as the Absa South African Premiership soccer side wrapped up their tour of Zimbabwe with a goalless draw against the local league champions at Gwanzura Stadium yesterday.

After beating league runners-up Highlanders 2-0 at Barbourfields last Wednesday in their opening match and running riot over Caps United who they hammered 4-1 on Friday, the visitors yesterday finally met their match when they played against Dynamos.

Even though the Dynamos strike-force was blunt yesterday, it was their defence which charmed the Sundowns coach Mosimane who singled out the young defender Jaure for praise. However, the former Bafana Bafana coach said Jaure's lack of height was the biggest undoing to the centre-back.

"I liked the centre-back, the shorter one (Jaure), who was marking Nyasha. You wish a player like that could have a little bit of height. He is inteligent and a very good player," said Mosimane.

The coach said the three-match tour of Zimbabwe gave his side some good preparation before the resumption of the South African championship race soon after the African Cup of Nations and they would be fully prepared for their first match against log leaders Kaizer Chiefs.

"Dynamos are a good team and we think coming to Zimbabwe was very good preparation for us. We came here and we won two matches and drew one, so the trip was successful. We kept pushing (Dynamos) in their own half. You cannot score every time you play and they have a bit of organised defence but i think we could have done something in the first 25 minutes. But to be honest we didn't have clear cut chances," said Mosimane.

Dynamos coach Calisto Pasuwa retained his full-backs Ocean Mushure and Thomas Magorimbo while big goalkeeper George Chigova was replaced by newboy Artwell Mukandi after the breather. The match, which was also being used by gaffer Pasuwa to fine-tune the team ahead of the upcoming match against Lesotho Correctional Services, saw the coach assessing his new players in a real game situation.

Former Hardbdody midfielder Stephen Alimenda together with Devon Chafa played in midfield while the new strike force of Boban Zirintusa and Patrick Khumbula was also paraded. Even though Ugandan forward Zirintusa showed some flashes of brilliance upfront, there is still a lot to work on in this department.

"In terms of possessing the ball, we were leaving too much possession to our opponents and in our next assignment we have to try and win the ball quickly. But my worry is on our strikeforce now, offensively we are not okay but defensively we are okay.

"The new players are doing well but the problem is that some of the players are still jittery, because of the late registrations, they only started training with the team last week."