Online Reporter
Sharuko On Saturday
CAPS United don’t have a tradition of winning the league championship on a regular basis.
That’s the brutal truth, no matter how much it hurts.
Even in their hey days, when they could parade some of the best players in the country, the Green Machine didn’t have a tradition of being regular winners of the championship.
Joel Shambo and his troops didn’t win the championship throughout the ‘80s, which was a golden age for this club, in which they transformed themselves into the Cup Kings.
Makepekepe only won one league title in the ‘70s, one in the ‘90s, two in the first decade after the turn of the millennium and one in the last decade.
That is five league titles in the 49 years the club have played in the domestic Premiership – which translates to about one championship every 10 years.
When you consider that both of their main rivals – Dynamos and CAPS United – won this same championship four times in a row, at some point, you get a better understanding of the point I’m trying to drive home.
For good measure, DeMbare even did it twice.
To put it into context, Kalisto Pasuwa has four league title winners’ medals, as a coach, just one shy of the five which all the CAPS United coaches have won as a group.
In just four seasons, between 2011 and 2014, Pasuwa finds himself just one league title short of what all the men who have coached CAPS United have won in the 49 years Makepekepe have been in the top-flight league.
The difference, in age, between Dynamos and CAPS is 10 years – DeMbare were formed in 1963, Makepekepe were formed in 1973.
Since CAPS arrived in the Premiership in 1976, DeMbare have won 16 league titles and Makepekepe have won just five.
In the ‘80s alone, when the rivalry between these two giants was at its peak, Dynamos won seven titles between ’80 and ’87, which is more than what the Green Machine have won in 49 years in the top-flight league.
CAPS’ haul of five league titles, in 49 years, is what Dynamos won in just six seasons between ’80 and ’85 when they won five of the six league titles on offer.
Only Black Rhinos prevented those Glamour Boys, back when they were a proper football club and not some family’s tuckshop or slot machine, from making it six out of six.
When one considers that FC Platinum have won four league championships, since their arrival in the top-flight league, just 14 years ago, it puts into context what I am trying to say that CAPS don’t have a tradition of being regular winners of the championship.
THE DUDE, THE GLORY, THE CONTEXT
The late Steve “The Dude” Kwashi is a legendary figure at CAPS after delivering the club’s first league championship in the era of Independence with a swashbuckling team which gave a new and beautiful meaning to attacking football.
But, the reality is that Steve won just one league title at the Green Machine.
Charles Mhlauri, with two league titles, is the most successful coach at CAPS United.
Shackman Tauro is one of domestic football’s greatest sons and probably its finest goal-scoring machine – a traditional number nine who was three times better than Hojlund and Zirkzee combined.
But, the brutal reality is that the superman, who we called Mr Goals, Chinyaride, Bere, mazita kupfekerana, as Choga Tichatonga Gavhure would call it, won just one league title at CAPS United.
That was in 1979 when he was also crowned Soccer Star of the Year.
It took the Green Machine 16 years after Independence for them to win the championship and 17 years for them to add a second title in their history.
Dynamos, for all their legacy success, have not won the championship in 11 years now – the longest barren spell by the Glamour Boys since their formation 62 years ago.
I understand the argument by some of the club’s fans that this is not their DeMbare but a caricature of what used to be the football team of their dreams which has now been personalised like a cell phone ringing tone by Marriot.
But it still remains a fact that Dynamos have not won a championship since Pasuwa left at the end of 2014 and, with the way things are going at the club, they are unlikely to win it in the next five years.
By then, Bosso would have turned 100 years old and, maybe in 2033, on the occasion of DeMbare’s 70th year anniversary, when all this Marriot nonsense has ended, they will be able to return to the Promised Land.
If Bosso don’t win the championship this season, they would celebrate their 100 years of existence next year without having been champions for exactly 20 years.
At least, there is something which the CAPS United fans can brag about and no one can take that away from them – it’s the fact that they are the last member of the Big Three to celebrate a league title.
That was in 2016.
And, in a domestic football landscape which is changing dramatically, where the traditional Big Three are being tested like they have never been done before, you have to give the CAPS fans the space to brag about that.
FARAI JERE, PSL CHAIRMANSHIP, CAPS UTD
And, there is much more to brag about:
CAPS United are the last local club to eliminate a former winner from the CAF Champions League when they defeated five-time winners TP Mazembe in 2017
The Green Machine are the only local club to win a match in the group stages of the CAF Champions League in the last 15 years.
DeMbare were the last to do so when they edged ES Setif of Tunisia 1-0 on August 15, 2010, at the National Sports Stadium, while also losing all their other five group matches.
The Glamour Boys 1-7 aggregate humiliation by Esperance in the second round of the 2012 CAF Champions League was a reminder of how DeMbare were slowly losing their way at this level of the game.
For the CAPS United family, the scoreline was also a reminder of a time and place, back in the years, when on their greatest night, in their head-to-head derby duels, they scored seven against DeMbare.
FC Platinum didn’t win a single match in the TWELVE games they played in the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 CAF Champions League group stages and finished bottom of the log on both occasions.
CAPS United are the only local club to win more than one match in the group stages of the CAF Champions League in the past 16 years after winning two games in their last appearance in the tournament in 2017.
Monomotapa had been the last local club to win more than one match in the group stages of the CAF Champions League in 2009.
CAPS United’s tally of six points in the group stages of the CAF Champions League is the highest return by a local club in the past 17 years.
The Green Machine are the only local club to defeat a club from North Africa in the CAF Champions League in the last 12 years. Dynamos were the last when they beat CA Bizertin of Tunisia 1-0 on April 7, 2013, at Rufaro.
Now, for all the gloom about the Green Machine being a club, which do not have a legacy of winning the championship on a regular basis, this is really something to brag about for CAPS United fans.
Their defensive masterclass in the goalless draw against TP Mazembe was a demonstration of the virtues of defence, in football, an art which Mhofu used to specialise on and which gave him a foundation to build his legacy.
They were impressive in their 2-0 win over USM Alger in the group stages of the CAF Champions League on May 24, 2017, at the giant stadium with Ronald Chitiyo scoring a brace.
They were even better in their 3-1 thrashing of Zamalek at the giant stadium on July 2, 2017, with Abbas Amidu the hero with a brace, including the insurance goal four minutes into time added on.
Jere stepped down from the PSL chairmanship last month and left with his head held high after delivering on his promise to deliver an immovable asset by securing prime land for the league’s headquarters.
Freed from his responsibilities at the PSL, Jere appears to have regained some of the energy, which was missing from him, in his bid to guide Makepekepe back to the podium of champions.
His actions, in the past few weeks, have been reassuring for the CAPS United fans, providing the hands-on leadership, which appeared to be lacking when he was PSL chairman, and plunging into the trenches with his boys.
He has made a number of key signings, the main one being the surprise acquisition of Kundai Benyu, and it’s hard to ignore what has been happening at the Green Machine.
In the past 20 years, Jere has poured more money into domestic football than any other individual and while it has not bought him the success he wants, you cannot fault him for trying.
Something keeps telling me that even though CAPS are the ones who do not have a tradition of winning the championship, among the Big Three, they are the ones who are likely to end these giants’ lengthy wait for the Holy Grail.
It might sound funny to many, given CAPS have been very ordinary in the past few seasons and even featured in the relegation matrix last year, but I have this strange feeling that they are the ones who will end the lengthy wait for the rains.
Something has been telling me that Farai Jere has been pre-occupied with the PSL issues, in the past few years when he has been the league chairman, it was all to the detriment of CAPS United.
Now, he doesn’t have this baggage and these could be interesting times on the green front.
To God be the Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Khamaldhinoooooooooooooooooo!
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