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Harare Bureau—
DEFENDING league champions Dynamos hope to bounce back from last weekend’s disappointment when they take on Highlanders at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday. The country’s indisputable two giants in terms of history and fan base will be clashing for the second time this season after DeMbare continued their dominance over Bosso when they beat them 2-0 in the Bob 90 Super Cup in March.
The Bulawayo giants have played second fiddle to Dynamos for the past seven years and some analysts believe they now suffer from psychological trauma every time they meet.
But this will definitely be a different ball altogether as the two giants have had contrasting fortunes in the league this season with DeMbare’s Achilles heel being their strike force while their opponents have been free-scoring with their new acquisition Charles Sibanda topping the club’s goal scorers chart.
Bosso have gone on an 11-game unbeaten run and are looking to continue with their fine form.
The Glamour Boys lost 1-0 to Hwange at the Colliery courtesy of a spot kick by South Africa-bound defender Eric Chipeta.
The champions would probably have not wanted to go into the Battle of Zimbabwe at the back of a disappointing defeat but team manager Richard Chihoro yesterday said they are past that match which they believe wasn’t fair on them. He said the big match will not count on what each team has been doing before but what the team would be capable of producing on match day.
“What we experienced at the Colliery was daylight robbery. It was a dubious penalty but I believe this will not weigh us down.
“We have been talking about this and the boys are actually saying let’s forget about this and focus on what is ahead of us. We have a big game coming up and you will notice that such matches involving either Highlanders or Caps United are always very competitive. They are usually played at high tempo and there is a very thin line between winning and losing,” he said.
The match comes at a time when the two teams are separated by two points with Highlanders on second position on the log with 21 points while the champions are fourth with 19 points.
“Obviously Highlanders are coming here to prove something. I am sure they will be looking to come strongly at us because they have lost a lot of matches against us. They would want to break the jinx so we have to prepare well for them,” said Chihoro.
Meanwhile, the game between Caps United and Chiredzi at Chishamiso has been moved to Sunday, according to a revised fixture released by the PSL yesterday. The match was initially set for Saturday. The Green Machine have been poor travellers and will be looking for their first win of the season away from Harare.
Harare City have a tricky date at Ascot with Chapungu on Friday where they look to continue with their recovery following a good run in recent matches. However, the Sunshine Boys coach Bigboy Mawiwi is aware he has to do enough homework as Chapungu have been invincible at their fortress.
City are coming from a morale-boosting 4-1 demolition of Bantu Rovers in their last match played at Rufaro on Monday.
Fixtures
Friday: Chapungu v Harare City (Ascot, SS).
Saturday: Bantu Rovers v Buffaloes (Luveve), Black Rhinos v Triangle United (Rimuka, SS).
Sunday: Chiredzi v Caps United (Chishamiso), Dynamos v Highlanders (National Sports Stadium, SS), Hwange v Chicken Inn (Colliery), How Mine v FC Platinum (Luveve), Shabanie Mine v ZPC Kariba (Maglas).
derick.khumalo