DeMbare ready: Pasuwa

clubs — Dynamos and Highlanders.
Dynamos are sitting at the top of the log with a two-point advantage over their rivals Bosso who have 56 points ahead of the top of the table clash.
The league race has now reached the home stretch and Dembare coach Callisto Pasuwa is well aware of the high stakes involved in this game as they mount a defence of their championship title.
Pasuwa believes a win will edge them towards the Castle Lager Premiership.
“It’s a plus sign for a team that wins on Sunday.
“For Dynamos, if we win this game, it will take off pressure from mounting in terms of the coming games,” said Pasuwa.
The Dynamos coach also warned his players against being distracted by the on-going pronouncements of Asiagate bans and to focus on their onslaught on the league and cup titles.
Last week, DeMbare suffered a setback when their seasoned defender Guthrie Zhokinyi was slapped with a life-ban from football as the Zifa board came down heavily on the culprits in the match fixing scandal.
Zhokinyi had been included in the team to face Gunners in a Mbada Diamonds Cup quarter-final match at Baghdad on Sunday and ended up sitting on the terraces.
Pasuwa said his players had been confused by conflicting reports that many of them such as young forward Cliff Sekete, speedy striker Martin Vengesai, in-form midfielder Tawanda Muparati and the combative Milton Makopa, were facing lengthy Zifa bans over Asiagate.
The Dynamos coach suspects that reports linking more than half of his team with Asiagate bans could also be “mind games to frustrate them so that they do not focus on the games that are coming up’’.
“I have been telling these youngsters since this Asiagate issue started that they are not banned until they are really banned.
“They must know that only Zifa bans them and Zifa officially write to the club and the PSL and so far the only official communication we got is that of Guthrie Zhokinyi.
“So maybe all this confusion is being created as part of mind games so that we lose our focus.
“I could see when we played Gunners that these reports had affected Cliff (Sekete) and he didn’t play his normal game’’ Pasuwa said.
However, the trio of Muparati, Makopa and Augustine Mbara were among the first batch of players to be cleared by the Independent Ethics Committee on April 25.
The three players were exonerated along with Ovidy Karuru, Khama Billiat, Oscar Machapa and Willard Katsande.
Highlanders’ Milton Ncube was also among the players in the first batch while Dynamos rightback David Kutyauripo was exonerated last week.
Dynamos are also sweating over rising defender  Partson Jaure who has a cut on his hand, Pasuwa said the rest of the players are ready to face Bosso.
“Guthrie is suspended because of the Asiagate and besides those three players who are injured, everyone is ready.
“The morale is very high and the guys are raring to go,” said Pasuwa.
Pasuwa said the US$15 000 and other perks unveiled by BancABC should spur his charges towards a positive result.
“The initiatives are a thumbs up to the guys and it will motivate them more to win this game.
“The championship race is still on and I think there are three or four teams which are still competing for that championship
“We have to take each game as it comes so that we get maximum points.
“To the fans who will come, I promise them good football and with good support maybe we will pull through,” Pasuwa said.
Bosso representative Dereck Ncube, said it was his team’s turn to end DeMbare’s dominance over them.
Highlanders have not won a match against Dynamos since 2009 while the first meeting between the two teams this year ended in a stalemate at Barbourfields.
“This time around we are playing them in their own backyard.
“They came to us and collected a point and we are coming to them and we want to collect all the three points
“That’s what is key in this game,” said Ncube.
A win for Bosso will push them back to the top of the log while a defeat will give their rivals more advantage. 
“Looking at how many games are left in the season, it’s for everyone to see that, should anyone falter at this stage it might be difficult to recover.
“So basically it’s the most important game of the season,” Ncube said.