Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo Dynamos 1-0 Herentals
DYNAMOS were far from their best but still showed the fighting spirit that has defined the club for generations as they battled to a narrow victory over Herentals at Rufaro Stadium yesterday.
The hard-fought win, secured from one of their few clear opportunities, lifted the Glamour Boys to third place on the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League table with 50 points, 11 behind leaders Scottland.
Mathematically, the victory, courtesy of Frank Agyemang’s 12th goal of the season, keeps Dynamos in the title conversation. Realistically, however, securing a top-four finish remains the more attainable target and has been the club’s primary objective.
Just weeks ago, DeMbare appeared genuine championship contenders after piecing together a run of crucial victories. However, a loss of momentum has allowed Scottland and second-placed Hardrock to open up a significant gap.
Their exits from both the Chibuku Super Cup and the Munhumutapa Cup during the same period, coupled with ongoing boardroom instability that has left chairman Vincent Chawonza effectively steering the club’s affairs alone, have only added to the challenges.
There were also tense scenes in the VVIP enclosure during yesterday’s match, where a section of Dynamos supporters directed their frustrations at Chawonza, who sat flanked by security personnel.
The unrest in the stands mirrored Dynamos’ struggle on the pitch.
Yet when the final whistle sounded, there was relief and celebration as the Harare giants showed determination to score and resilience to protect their slender lead. The victory eased pressure on coach Aristica Cioaba and his players after a run of four matches without a win in all competitions.
“I think after a number of games without a win, we put ourselves in this situation. First, I want to say congratulations to the players for today’s performance, for their spirit and their fight. Three points were possible in this game, and it was important because this week was very bad for us.
“Everyone was talking negatively. It’s normal, this is football. When you work for a month under pressure, you lose a cup, you go out, and everyone attacks the club, attacks the staff, attacks the players. But people don’t understand football. It’s not only us who went out of the cup, other big clubs went out too, but I didn’t see the same negativity.
“Congratulations to the players because this week, I was working alone. Nobody came to motivate them. I stayed with the players on the pitch every day. I tried to lift their morale, to make them believe again that it is possible to win games, to make them believe again that this team can finish in the top four.”
Cioaba recently declared that he would leave the club if Dynamos failed to finish in the top four. On Saturday, board chairman Bernard Marriot visited the team to offer support ahead of the match.
“Also, I want to dedicate these three points as a gift to Boss Marriot for coming yesterday (Saturday) and giving us a clear message. He gave us morale and that was good for us. Our sponsor, as I said before, gives us all the conditions we need, but right now we need to be closer to the players. Morale is coming up after this win, but this week, only I understood them.”
For long periods, however, it was Herentals who looked the more likely side to score.
Prince Mahembe, Erick Dombo and Kundai Sangare all squandered promising opportunities, with some clear chances going begging as the Students dominated possession and territory.
Against the run of play, Dynamos found the breakthrough.
Agyemang refused to give up on what appeared to be a lost cause, chasing a loose ball that seemed destined to run harmlessly away. But hesitation from Prince Chama and a miscommunication involving goalkeeper
Tinotenda Takarinda presented the striker with an opening, which he gratefully accepted by sliding the ball into an empty net.
Herentals coach Paul Benza was left frustrated by his side’s failure to convert their dominance into goals.
“I think today we lost to ourselves more than anything else. We got a lot of chances and we should have been in the game in the first few minutes. The goal we conceded was a schoolboy blunder. That is avoidable.
We just gave it away again. We need to do better than that and of course we are looking at top four.
“The strategy was to run down the opponent from the first whistle and it was paying off because we were getting chances, those rebounds that we were not finishing.
“If we had been a bit fortunate, or if the boys had just concentrated in those early minutes, we were supposed to bury those rebounds and win the game.”
