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Ricky Zililo Sports Reporter
THE football gods smiled on Bulawayo’s three Premier Soccer League clubs – Chicken Inn, Highlanders and How Mine at the weekend when they all marched on to the next round of the lucrative Mbada Diamonds Cup. The first to advance to the quarter-finals were Chicken Inn after beating Shabanie Mine 3-0 at Mandava Stadium on Saturday afternoon, followed by How Mine who edged Black Rhinos 1-0 in the first match at Barbourfields Stadium before Bosso capped a fine weekend for Bulawayo with a 3-2 victory over Triangle.
The three City of Kings clubs now join Hwange who knocked out BancABC Sup8r Cup losing finalists FC Platinum, defending champions Dynamos who narrowly beat Tripple B and Harare City who beat Monomotapa. Hwange, Dynamos and Monomotapa all had 1-0 identical score lines.
The other teams that will go into the hat for the quarter-finals draw are Caps United and Buffaloes.
The quarter-finals will be played on the weekend of 12-13 October and a draw for the last eight is set for the end of the week.
Four of the eight teams who will fall by the wayside after the quarter-finals will receive $30 000 each with the losing semi-finalists set to get $45 000 while the tournament’s losing finalists will get $90 000. The winners of the tournament will take home $130 000 and that club will also get a $110 000 subsidy for their Caf competition’s sojourn.
In the first round, all the teams were determined to outclass each other and fans turned out in their numbers at all the stadia where the matches were played.
The sponsors and the Premier Soccer League had reduced the gate charges to $1 and the move seemed to have paid off given the turnout.
Some of the fans even challenged the PSL clubs to consider reducing the gate charges with the Premiership chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele challenging clubs to be aggressive in marketing the matches.
“We were very fortunate that we had a sponsor who understood the importance of fans and now the onus is on clubs to make sure that they attract those people who were staying away from stadia due to different reasons. The crowds were very encouraging but we are yet to reconcile the figures to get a true picture.
“In terms of a possibility of clubs reducing gate charges, that all depends on the club bosses who are the governors but what this reduction confirmed was that many people are not attending matches not because they are not interested in soccer but because the charges are too high.
The challenge therefore is to come up with strategies to attract large crowds to matches which could include reducing charges,” said Ndebele.
At least 20 000 people attended the double header at Barbourfields Stadium where How Mine played their tie against Black Rhinos before the Highlanders-Triangle encounter.
In the first match at Bulawayo’s ceremonial home of soccer, How Mine sailed through courtesy of a strike by second half substitute Timothy January. That victory for How Mine saw their interim coach Philani “Beefy” Ncube taking his unbeaten run since taking over from Philani Mabhena to four games.
How Mine will be hoping to carry their good form to Mutare where they take on Buffaloes in a league match tomorrow.
The gold miners travel to the Manicaland Provincial capital without left back Khumbulani Banda. Chicken Inn are also on the road as they travel to take on the wounded bulls Motor Action in Harare.
In one of the two big midweek matches, Highlanders will be at home to FC Platinum who have suffered two defeats in as many weekends.
The ambitious Zvishavane club last week lost on penalties in the final of the BancABC Sup8r Cup to Shabanie Mine and on Sunday suffered a 0-1 defeat to Hwange in the Mbada Diamonds Cup first round at the Colliery.
Tomorrow they face a hard-pressed to win Highlanders at Barbourfields and Bosso will be hoping to add misery to Lloyd Mutasa and his men. Mutasa comes into the game with a full-strength squad compared to Highlanders who will be without their best player of the season Bruce Kangwa and national team midfielder Masimba Mambare due to suspensions.
The Highlanders’ coach Kelvin Kaindu was pleased with his team’s performance but expressed his disappointment over his porous defence.
“The good thing is that we have worked on our finishing but I am not happy with the goals that we are conceding. We tend to lose concentration and we end up conceding unnecessary goals,” said Kaindu.
His defenders should improve on their tactical awareness because FC Platinum have quality forwards who can punish them if they are let loose. FC Platinum’s offensive players include Soccer Star of the Year contender Charles Sibanda, Donald Ngoma, Nelson Maziwisa, Ali Sadiki and Obrey Chirwa who can be a menace for Highlanders’ back four.
Against Triangle, Highlanders rightback Lawson Nkomo had a torrid time in dealing with Pasca Manhanga and Kaindu might opt for Eric Mudzingwa or Bruce Tshuma to start ahead of the dreadlocked defender. Mudzingwa can also be deployed on the left side of defence in the absence of Kangwa with another player capable of playing that role being Milton Ncube.
Striker Gabriel Nyoni is slowly proving to be Highlanders’ trump card and after scoring a brace against triangle, he definitely wants to continue scoring for his club.
The other big game tomorrow is at the Colliery Stadium where Hwange play host to log leaders Dynamos. The match which will be screened on Supersport Nine is one of Dynamos’ remaining tricky games of the season. DeMbare are at the top of the log with 41 points and Hwange are swimming in the murky relegation waters with 22 points from 21 outings.
The defending champions should expect a tough game at the Colliery and with Hwange basking in glory after their first round Mbada Cup win against FC Platinum, the coalminers would want to ease their relegation woes with a victory over Dynamos.
Shabanie Mine date Harare City at the capital.
Mbada Diamonds Cup Results
Saturday: Chicken Inn 3, Shabanie Mine 0; Buffaloes 1, Black Mambas 1 (Buffaloes won 4-2 on penalties), Caps United 0, Motor Action 0 (Caps United won 7-6 on penalties)
Sunday: Dynamos 1, Tripple B 0; Highlanders 3, Triangle 2; Hwange 1, FC Platinum 0; How Mine 1, Black Rhinos 0; Harare City 1, Monomotapa 0
PSL midweek Fixtures
Tomorrow: Harare City v Shabanie Mine (Rufaro), Motor Action v Chicken Inn (Motor Action Sports Club), Buffaloes v How Mine (Sakubva), Caps United v Triangle (National Sports Stadium), Hwange v Dynamos (Colliery, SS9), Highlanders v FC Platinum (Barbourfields)
Thursday: Monomotapa v Tripple B (Gwanzura)
Log Standing
P W D L F A Pts
Dynamos 21 11 8 2 29 11 41
Harare City 21 11 6 4 33 17 39
Highlanders 21 11 4 6 30 17 37
FC Platinum 21 10 6 5 26 18 36
Caps United 21 10 5 6 29 20 35
Chicken Inn 21 10 4 7 25 24 34
Buffaloes 21 10 1 10 33 33 31
How Mine 21 9 4 8 20 23 31
Shabanie Mine 21 8 4 9 21 25 28
Triangle 21 7 6 8 24 26 27
Black Mambas 22 8 3 11 19 26 27
Black Rhinos 22 5 8 9 22 30 23
Hwange 21 5 7 9 20 22 22
Monomotapa 21 6 4 11 21 33 22
Tripple B 21 4 6 11 18 31 18
Motor Action 21 3 6 12 14 28 15
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