Tongai Mashonga [email protected]
The fairy-tale continues.
In their debut season in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League, Hardrock FC have defied logic, defied budgets and defied the form book to reach the final of one of the country’s most prestigious knockout competitions, the Chibuku Super Cup.
And in a script written in the stars, the icing on the cake is that the final will be staged at their fortress, the majestic Chahwanda Stadium.
For a club that was playing Division One football last season, this is no longer just a good run. This is history.
On Saturday, Hardrock showed why they belong at the top table. Trailing 2-0, down to 10 men after a red card, with their fans silenced and their dream seemingly over, the Miners dug deep into that famous Kwekwe fighting spirit that has defined this mining town for generations.
They clawed back to 2-2 in regulation time before holding their nerve to win 5-3 on penalties. It was grit. It was guts. It was Hardrock.
Experience leading the way
What has separated Hardrock from many promoted sides is not youthful exuberance alone, but the clever blend of experience and quality that the executive assembled at the start of the season.
While other newcomers chased untested talent, Hardrock went for proven winners, (Washington Navaya, Donald Mudadi, Gerald Takwara, Misheck Ngwenya, Neliswa
Dlamini, Sambulo Simelane, Tinotenda Muringai, Nigel Matinha, Prince Dube) players who have walked this road before, who have lifted cups, who know how to manage big moments.
And on Saturday, that experience spoke loudest when it mattered most.
When the team was 2-0 down and a man short, it was both the senior players youths combined who steered the ship. It was the senior players who calmed nerves in the second half, who showed composure on the ball, who led the press, who took responsibility from the penalty spot.
This is a team led from the front. A team that does not panic. A team that believes as their coach has drilled into them — that it is not over until it is over.
“I’m happy with the culture that we have developed to believe in ourselves that it is not over until it is over,” said the coach Kelvin Kaindu after the semi-final triumph.
That culture is built on experienced heads guiding hungry legs.
Chahwanda factor
If reaching the final on debut is a dream, hosting it at Chahwanda is destiny.
The majestic Chahwanda Stadium has been a fortress for Hardrock this season.
Built on a hill overlooking the mining town, with its imposing stands and deafening acoustics, Chahwanda has become a graveyard for visiting teams.
MWOS fell there. Simba Bhora fell there. Dynamos, Scottland were held there.
Opposition coaches have spoken about the intimidating atmosphere, the vociferous
Hardrock faithful who turn the stadium into a sea of gold, green and white singing from the first whistle to the last.
Now the country’s showpiece final comes home.
For the Kwekwe community, a community built on mining, built on hard work, built on resilience, this is more than football. This is validation. For years they have watched cup finals on television in Harare and Bulawayo. Now the final comes to them.
“It would have been embarrassing to be the host and not be in the final,” the coach admitted. “The objective has been achieved, we have qualified to the final.”
The objective has indeed been achieved, but a bigger one now beckons.
NO LONGER UNDERDOGS
What makes Hardrock’s run even more remarkable is the manner of it. This has not been a fluke built on transition football and lucky draws.
They have beaten PSL heavyweights along the way. They have come from behind in three successive knockout games. They have scored late winners when hope seemed lost. They have shown tactical flexibility, mental strength and that rare quality in Zimbabwean football consistency.
“This is just showing that this is our year,” the coach said. “How many games have we come back or how many games have we won when hope is lost especially from the fans. I think we are believing in ourselves.”
That belief is now spreading beyond Kwekwe. Neutrals across the country have adopted
Hardrock as their second team. In a league often dominated by the same names, everyone loves a new story.
Hardrock are that new story.
One game now separates the debutants from immortality.
Win at Chahwanda, and Hardrock will lift the Chibuku Super Cup on their first attempt.
It is the stuff dreams are made of.
For the experienced players who took a gamble to join a newly promoted side, it is a chance
to cement their legacy. For the young players (Tinashe Mashaireni, Wilfred Madzungu,
Last Nyilenda) from Kwekwe who grew up kicking balls in dusty fields, it is a chance to
become legends in their own town.
For Hardrock FC, the miners who refused to stop digging, the final whistle in that semi-
final penalty shootout was not the end. It was just the beginning.
The Chibuku Super Cup final is coming to Chahwanda.
