JOHANNESBURG Zimbabwe Warriors defender Zvenyika Makonese last week dismissed reports that he once threatened to leave South African ABSA Premiership giants Orlando Pirates, saying he has settled well at the club.
The former Shabanie Mine defender, who joined Pirates from Cape Town-based Santos during the second half of the 2008/09 season, has this season risen to become a regular feature in the Buccaneers line-up, relegating captain Lehlohonolo Seema to the bench. It was reported last month that the tough-as-teak defender was looking at leaving the Soweto giants, but last Wednesday, Makonese told The Zimbabwean On Sunday that he was happy at Pirates and looked forward to a better all-round showing next year.
I joined Pirates because I wanted game time. This is what I have been getting of late and there is no reason why I would suddenly talk about leaving. I did not feature in the team for some time after joining, but one needs to adjust when coming from another team and I knew that my chance would also come, said the towering centreback. Pirates are a very big club with a passionate following. I worked hard at training and I am happy that I have been given a chance to prove myself, which I have grabbed with both hands. Although he was very happy with his performance so far, Makonese still believed that a fifth-place finish in the just-ended ABSA Premiership campaign was not good enough for Pirates.
The Buccaneers also bowed out of the CAF Champions League tournament in the preliminary stages when they were held to a 2-2 home draw by minnows Gaborone United of Botswana two weeks ago. The two sides had drawn the first leg 0-0 in Gaborone, resulting in the Botswana outfit going through on the away goals rule. Losing to the Botswana club was bad. We also lost a lot of ground in the second half of the league season, where we drew games we should have won and that contributed to our position . . . Our biggest problem was that, despite the good defending that we did, we failed to score. The Zimbabwean defender said that he and his team-mates looked forward to winning at least one of the remaining two major cup competitions the Telkom Knock-out and the Nedbank Cup so that they re-pay their fans. Our aim is to ensure that at least one of the trophies ends up in Parktown (Pirates Headquarters) and we are working very hard to achieve that.
Post published in: Zimbabwe Sports News