Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
CAPS United coach Takesure Chiragwi walked into Barbourfields to face Highlanders in a league match on Sunday as an absolute underdog.
That’s notwithstanding the fact that the Green Machine were leading the Premier Soccer League standings for eight consecutive weeks.
Even a defeat wouldn’t have dislodged them from the perch.
Yet for years, including in 2004, 2005 and 2016, they still came from Barbourfields bruised even after stepping on that turf as the log leaders.
Chiragwi’s record against Highlanders, not just at B/F but everywhere else wasn’t that well.
Actually, in his entire stay at Ngezi Platinum Stars, including in 2023 when the Mhondoro team won the league championship, Chiragwi had failed to beat Bosso, home or away.
But he arrived at Barbourfields with a game plan that worked out well to finally unlock the Bulawayo giants.
CAPS had last won a league game at Emagumeni in 2015.
Chiragwi once understudied Highlanders coach Benjani Mwaruwari in a 13-match streak in 2022.
At the start of the match, Chiragwi deployed a 3-4-3 structure that had Kudzai Chigwida, Talent Chamboko and Nyasha Gurende at the back with Brian Kadamanja, Dominic Njaliwa, Richard Hachiro and Chawanangwa Kaonga in midfield.
Ishmael Wadi, Obriel Chirinda and Takunda Benhura were the front three.
It was an intelligent structure which would see Kadamanja drifting down to right Back, Chigwida and Gurende to central defence and have the flat four when under siege.
To ensure that Highlanders wouldn’t dominate midfield battles, which has been their main strength this season, Chiragwi loaded their left channel where Wadi’s pace was too hot to handle for Bosso’s Andrew Mbeba.
Often, Benhura and Kaonga would pile up down that flank with the movement confusing Bosso who ended up forcing one of their twin centrebacks from Benjani’s four-man defence, Tawanda Shenje, to help out in the left.
That left them thin, with only Nomore Chinyerere left to deal with the energy coming directly from the midfield of Njaliwa and Hachiro with Chirinda also a constant menace especially in aerial balls.
The confusion all this created manifested in the 10th minute when Highlanders goalkeeper Aaron Ngwenya could only fumble one of the high balls into his box.
Njaliwa was a bit slower to the rebound and ended up lobbying the ball against the crossbar and Highlanders, just like that, survived.
By that time, the hosts were always second to the ball with Makepekepe enjoying just about every piece of it.
Hachiro was picking all the loose balls in midfield and getting to stitch the pieces together, all to good effect for the visitors whose fans at Mpilo end were raucous in the entire game.
The midfielder appeared to get off his colour a bit after getting a knock in one of the persistent forays upwards.
“Everything worked the way we had planned. I want to salute my players, especially for giving it their all in dealing with Highlanders set-pieces.
“It’s an area that they are outstandingly good at. Credit to the boys, credit to the goalkeeper also in that regard.
“Our structure was very good. We designed it in such a manner that we would shrink spaces for them in midfield and in our defensive third. It all worked out well as we managed to suffocate Mongameli Tshuma and Prince Ndlovu.”
