Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo-Zimpapers Sports Hub
CAPS United coach Takesure Chiragwi has experienced firsthand the fireworks of the Harare Derby as a player.
The former Ngezi Platinum Stars mentor still remembers those battles against Dynamos when he was right in the heat of things as a Makepekepe left-back.
He won some and lost some, but the memories still linger large for one of the players who then transformed into one of the finest coaches in the local Premiership right now.
On Sunday, Chiragwi will stand on the dugout in the Harare Derby as a coach for the first time.
He has achieved a lot of great things leading clubs like Shabanie Mine and Ngezi Platinum with whom he won the league championship in 2023.
But he knows getting to lead the Green Machine in the big Harare showdown has its pressures.
He is back to his Makepekepe roots having been lured back at the start of this year and the Green Machine are rolling well in a season that has proved to have so much competition in only 10 match days.
Perhaps the good thing is that CAPS United have been leading the standings right from the opening day and the result against Dynamos on Sunday can have a huge bearing on that given they are only a point above second-placed Hardrock and two ahead of Ngezi Platinum.
“Well, you know, it’s always good to play against Dynamos, and I could understand the feeling, I could understand the zeal, the hunger to play against those teams back in my days as a player,” said Chiragwi.
“If I look back during my playing days, that day or that week, I wouldn’t want the motivation from anyone, even from the coach. It was only the motivation for myself to say, the star is going to be born on Sunday or on Saturday.
“Then by that day, getting the opportunity, I could rise to the occasion. I remember so many games that I managed to do well. And I also shared that experience with the players and with also my colleagues, Ian Bakala and Joseph Kamwendo who were also a part of that at some point. It kept us together. We also played in that derby. So at the end of the day, it’s up to the players and also as a coach,
it’s also good to make sure that we have got something to give back and also the history that we have can also play a pivotal role to make sure that you motivate the players and make them understand from my own understanding that I had when I was a player.
“It’s easy to give that to the players because I know how it is, I know the feeling, I know everything how it is. At the end of the day, I think it’s up to them to take everything that we are going to give them for them to deliver.”
Chiragwi’s charges are coming from a dispiriting defeat at the hands of Bulawayo Chiefs last week.
“That defeat was necessary from the way I see it,” he said.
“We needed that kind of awakening given that we are going to play against one of our biggest rivals in the league Dynamos.
“Now we go in there with the right kind of mentality knowing that even if we look stronger on paper, we can still be stopped by anyone in this competitive league.”
WEEK 11 FIXTURES
Saturday
Bulawayo Chiefs v Herentals (B/F)
FC Hunters v Ngezi Platinum (Heart)
FC Platinum v Scottland (Mandava)
Manica Diamonds v Agama (Sakubva)
MWOS v Chicken Inn (Ngoni)
Simba Bhora v ZPC Kariba (Wadzanai)
TelOne v Hardrock (Ascot)
Sunday
Dynamos v Caps United (Rufaro)
Highlanders v Triangle (B/F)
