Bullets in house of El Dragóns
FCB Nyasa Bullets this afternoon start their CAF Champions League campaign against Equitorial Guinea’s El Dragóns with hope of exorcising the demons that stop the team from making it past the continental competition’s preliminary round.
For the past four consecutive years The People’s Team have been knocked in the preliminary round of the competition.
In 2018-19 they were booted out by Kenya champions Gor Mahia through post-match penalties after the first and second leg ended one-all.
In 2019-20, Bullets were shown the exit by Zimbabwe’s Platinum FC following a goalless draw at Kamuzu Stadium and a 3-2 loss in Bulawayo.
In 2020-21, Bullets beat AmaZulu of South Africa 1-0 away but were stunned 3-0 at Bingu National Stadium.
However, the Malawi champions preliminary round, was the worst as they even failed to score.
They lost to Tanzania giants Simba FC 2-0 both at home and away to once again exit the competition.
Coach Kallisto Pasuwa has been in charge of the team in all these editions of the Champions League.
In an interview, the Zimbabwean tactician admitted that the team’s challenge has been lack of quality and experience to match the teams that compete in Champiosn League.
Pasuwa said: “One area we need also to look when we are playing these international matches is the quality of our players. Last year we had Babatunde Adepoju, but he was bought by Venda Academy, a team in the lower division.
“Mamelodi Sundowns ,who are representing South Africa, play in the Premier Soccer League.
“Us we are selling to Venda Academy, a second division side and we are recruiting from the reserve side or locally, to compete with the other teams like Sundowns, in CAF Champions League.
“I am not saying we are not capable of competing against them, but also you can easily see that we need to beef up our team in order for us to come good in these competitions. As you know, there is a lot of money in Champions League.”
Having lost Babatunde and Chimwemwe Idana, who were key players in Pasuwa’s formation, the coach says he now has to rely on mostly inexperienced players who despite showing potential cannot match players in other teams in the Champions League.
He said: “Experience counts at the same time we need to be tactically good. Players are coming out, but one area we may also need to look at is that last season we had Idana, but we could not keep him and we let him go. May be because of something to do with finances. Then again we had Babatunde Adepoju, and he left because may be he also wanted an improvement in his livelihood.”
But despite Pasuwa being aware that Bullets needed to beef up ahead of CAF Champions League, he is on record as having said he would not do so.
The coach explained that this had to do with the calibre of players available for him to recruit.
“I can go to Zimbabwe to recruit players, but their salaries are higher than here. Here they will end up not agreeing the terms with them. So, I think we are talking of the budget which we are having this side which is lower,” he said.
For this campaign it is even worse as the People’s Team have travelled to Equatorial Guinea without some key players.
They will be without Alick Lungu, Stanley Billiat, Mike Mkwate and Hassan Kajoke who are injured.
But Bullets still have other experienced players, including captain Precious Sambani, Ernest Petro, Yamikani Fodya, Gomezgani Chirwa, McFarlane Mgwira, Patrick Mwaungulu, Richard Chimbamba and Lanjesi Nkhoma who were part of last year’s squad.
Bullets personal best Champions League performance was in 2004 when they beat SC Villa of Uganda, Zanaco of Zambia and previous champions, Orlando Pirates of South Africa to qualify for the group stages.
Their opponents, founded in 1967, have qualified for the CAF Champions League three times, but have never advanced past the preliminary round.
