adminWHAT is it that Sunday “Mhofu” Chidzambwa is supposed to have lost touch with?
Zimbabwean football has fallen so hard it must be hurting.
Any gaffer worth his salt should be able to coach in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League and Chidzambwa is no ordinary coach.
While a lot of attention has been focused on poor administration, an alarming fall in quality is being experienced on the pitch, with very few taking notice.
Apart from FC Platinum, Triangle and Chicken Inn the rest of the top-flight teams struggle to put together meaningful build-ups.
A free kick from the edge of the box has become as dangerous as a goal-kick being taken at the other end: no one converts from such positions anymore.
And don’t even talk about the quality of corner kicks and crosses from the wings.
The strikers seem to have no idea how to direct that round thing between the posts, while the midfielders run all over the pitch without threading defining passes.
Dribbling is taboo.
The defenders hoof it the first chance they get, very few have the guts to start play from the back.
We are being starved of quality. We now comfort ourselves with applauding a player who chests the ball, but loses it during the next bit of play.
What can we do when goals have become gold dust?
It’s so bad Match Day 16 gave us only seven goals to cheer about.
Five matches were tasteless, goalless draws.
If players like Joel Lupahla, Danisa Phiri and Siza Khoza can come out of retirement and still be good enough to play — and score — in the top-flight league, what can stop Mhofu from coming out of a three-year hiatus to successfully coach ZPC Kariba?
Chidzambwa missed very little during the time he was sidelined for his alleged involvement in the Asiagate match fixing scandal.
ZPC Kariba’s poor run cannot, in all honesty, be blamed on the 63-year old coach being out of touch with the Premiership.
Gibbo is a difficult place to visit, with Kelvin Kaindu in charge of Triangle and a 0-1 defeat in the Lowveld is not disastrous.
Losing at home to a Tsholotsho outfit that has Lupahla as its scorer is bad, but this is the same side that beat Harare City on the opening day of the season and held Dynamos to a goalless draw at Rufaro.
Nyamhunga Stadium is yet to feel like a home ground to the ZPC Kariba players as they are getting used to its new look and feel.
A goalless draw away to Tsholotsho saw Chidzambwa bag his first point and last year’s league runners-up do not look they will be shipping in more goals as their defence gets tighter.
But they won’t be scoring dozens, too.
Chidzambwa is a coach who would rather win 1-0 than edge a 5-4 thriller.
He is also known for getting something special out of players who don’t look the part.
Who ever imagined Ernest Masango being a key member of the Dynamos side that reached the CAF Champions League final in 1998?
How about Lazarus Muhoni being one of the obvious names on the Warriors team sheet?
Going forward, ZPC Kariba artistes like Pride Tafirenyika and Russel Madamombe will have to sacrifice some class for graft because under Chidzambwa every player is a defender first.
Online Reporter