Napsa Stars have set ABSA Cup qualification as their short term target ahead of the kick off of the 2023/2024 MTN Super League season.
NAPSA head coach Perry Mutapa revealed this during a virtual press conference on Monday.
Mutapa is however expecting a tough season ahead as he feels most teams have beefed up their squads.
“It will be a tough one, as you can see a lot of teams have beefed up their squads so it will not be easy. But as NAPSA Stars, we have our short- and long-term goals.
With our short-term goals, we want to qualify for ABSA if we can do better in the first half of the season. Long term if we can do better than last season. That will be good for us,” he said.
“I have talked about the short-term goals which are to qualify for ABSA. This season we have very big games in the first seven games, but all the teams this season will be tough, and the most important thing is looking back to how we have prepared.”
“We learnt some lessons last season and it does not matter who we will face, and we have a big game for our first fixture, but we are going to do our best, we are an emerging team, and we want to do well, so it will not be easy, but we have the plans for the season. We are aiming to do well, especially in the first game, so we gain confidence and do well in the first round,” he added.
Meanwhile defender Keegan Zulu feels the team is ready for the season and has prepared adequately.
“We are ready for this season, we have prepared adequately, our preseason was okay, and we prepared well as individuals and as a team,” he said.
“I will echo what the coach has said, our short-term target is ABSA qualification and for us to play ABSA we have to do well in the first round. So, we have prepared well and adequately, and we are ready for each team that will come our way, and for us to do well, we need to shine in games like these, so we have to work extra hard to achieve what we want.”
Midfielder Dickson Chapa wants the team to reflect the good preseason they had when the season finally kicks off this weekend.
“We had a good preseason, and we want to have a true reflection of the preseason we had. And for a good season to happen, we need to do well in our first games, so we are working on that,” he said.
“These first games are the ones to give us an identity as a team. You know to be the best, you need to beat the best so as a team we just have to enjoy these games, do well and they will give us an identity,” he added.
