Newly-appointed Buildcon FC coach Kelvin Kaindu says his aim is to keep the Team in the Super Division despite being in the relegation zone.
The former Power Dynamos and Zanaco FC coach was officially presented to the public as the man to take stewardship by Team Kopala on Sunday along with former City of Lusaka great Boyd Mulwanda who will take up the assistant coach’s role and the duo have been signed to short term deals that will see them stay at the club until the end of the season with their core task being saving the club’s Super League status.
“Our main aim is to get the team out of the relegation zone and it is not an easy task because we are already in the relegation but with a bit of motivation and probably try to bring in one or two things we can survive,” Kaindu told the club’s media after his unveiling.
Kaindu has already being introduced to the team having arrived in Ndola last week before a disruption in group training sessions was advised to all clubs by the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) due to try Coronavirus (COVID-19) putting the Team Kopala trainer’s plans to a halt early into his tenure.
“It is very difficult, we had plans in which we structured our program but if you look at the comments by Government and also FAZ have put through it will be difficult for us to assemble as a team,” he said.
Clubs have been advised to encourage their players to train individually from home and Kaindu is pleased his technical team will be able to track the squad’s fitness and progress through this period courtesy of the modern technology training equipment, the GPS Tracking Devices available at the club.
“We will try to monitor the players’ fitness and one of the advantages we have as Buildcon is that we have the GPS that will help us gauge the fitness of the players but it’s not going to be easy because when the league resumes at that time everyone will probably not be fit enough,”
“But it is not only Buildcon, all the clubs will be affected and I believe health is more important.” he added.
Promoted only in 2017, the Ndola-based outfit made history by qualifying for their maiden continental expedition last season and competed in this season’s Total CAF Confederation Cup in which they suffered a Preliminary Round elimination and that low has been followed up with more woes on the local front for the club that sits 15th with 25 points on the Super League table.
The new coach has since appealed to the club supporters to push the team to transverse the current unimpressive situation.
“If there is anything we need most from the fans is the support, this year has not been easy but I hope the fans will rally behind the team and give the players the support that they need,” he said
“I think that fans play a big role in terms of motivating the team” Kaindu concluded.
Meanwhile, Serbian specialist Ivan Zoric who had been acting as interim coach for Team Kopala has since retained his technical director’s role.