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Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter—
BULAWAYO football enthusiasts should brace for a potentially explosive Chibuku Super Cup How Mine and Highlanders derby after the Premiership management fixtured the game for Hartsfield Stadium on Sunday. There were fears prior to the announcement of venues for the $500,000 Chibuku Super Cup that Bosso for the umpteenth time will be made to play a cup game away from the City of Kings due to the league’s contractual obligation to beam games on SuperSport.
Eight clubs – Highlanders, How Mine, Black Rhinos, Triangle, Chiredzi, Caps United, FC Platinum and Harare City are left in the competition.
Castle Lager Premier Soccer League chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele said the venues were done to accommodate the official broadcaster.
“The fixtures are out and have been done to suit the broadcaster. As a league we made a resolution at the beginning of the season to increase the number of matches screened on SuperSport and the proximity of venues in this case makes it feasible for the broadcaster to cover the games,” said Ndebele.
A double header is on the cards at Mandava Stadium on Saturday with relegation bound Chiredzi and Harare City clashing in the first game at 1PM while FC Platinum will take on Caps United two hours later.
Soon after the game, the SuperSport crew will travel to Bulawayo so that they set their equipment at Hartsfield Ground on Sunday morning ahead of the Bosso encounter.
Because of work being done at Bulawayo’s council-owned stadia – Barbourfields, Luveve and White City in preparation for the December African Union Sports Council Region Five Under-20 Games, all Premiership teams from the City of Kings are using Hartsfield as their temporary home. Sunday’s game is the first to be broadcast from the ceremonial home of rugby.
And with Highlanders coming from an embarrassing 1-4 drubbing by Dynamos, it will be a perfect stage for the Bosso players to recover from that morale sapping loss.
It will not be easy for the fading Bulawayo giants as How Mine have proved to be tricky customers for them.
However, playing in front of their home supporters, Highlanders, who were away in Gweru for two cup games, in the first round of the Chibuku Super Cup against Shabanie Mine and the OneWallet Sup8r Knockout tournament defeat by How Mine, are hard-pressed for a victory.
Besides the desire to win back the trust of their followers, Bosso will want to revenge against How Mine who eliminated them at the same stage of the OneWallet Sup8r Knockout competition after a penalty shootout at Ascot Stadium.
“That’s the only time we have to redeem ourselves because last Saturday was an embarrassing defeat to Dynamos… this time around we will show them who the boss in Bulawayo is,” said Mgcini Mpofu, the Highlanders vice-chairman.
After the DeMbare defeat, very few give Highlanders a chance to stand the heat against Luke Masomere coached How Mine whose players want to impress their coach who said he is building a squad for next season.
After the draw on Tuesday, How Mine chairman Mlondolozi Nkomo said they are looking forward to sailing through to the next stage.
“We are more than happy to have been drawn with Highlanders because we always play better against them and may be we can do the same this weekend. Our games against Highlanders are always tough and tightly contested and hopefully, we will be able to sail through to the next stage,” he said.
Meanwhile, Black Rhinos and Triangle face off in the last Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final on Monday at Ascot Stadium.
Fixtures
Saturday: Chiredzi v Harare City (Mandava, 1PM SuperSport), FC Platinum v Caps United (Mandava, 3PM Supersport)
Sunday: How Mine v Highlanders (Hartsfield, 3PM SuperSport)
Monday: Black Rhinos v Triangle United (Ascot, 3PM SuperSport)
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