Vusumuzi Dube
Fungai Muderere, Senior Sports Reporter
DYNAMOS and Simba Bhora will clash at Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo for their Castle Lager Premier Soccer League Week 20 tie this afternoon.
The two teams met in a Chibuku Super Cup first round match at the same venue on 12 August and Dynamos pipped Simba Bhora by a solitary goal. Interestingly, Chibuku Cup assignment was coach Genesis Mangombe first game in charge at DeMbare after taking over from suspended Herbert ‘Jampano’ Maruwa.Mangombe had an ideal genesis to his job as he watched his team boot out Simba Bhora from the country’s prestigious knockout tournament in the process managing to book their quarter-final berth through an Emmanuel Paga second half strike.
DeMbare are in a buoyant mood as they will go into this afternoon’s match with their tails up after posting a 2-0 away win over Gweru based Sheasham. It was a development that took DeMbare’s point tally to 32 and they are now within the championship chasing pack.
Simba Bhora are coming from a 1-0 loss they suffered from Chicken Inn in a match that was played at Baobab Stadium last weekend. Simba Bhora have so far won four games, drawn eight, lost seven and are tied on 20 points with Sheasham.
Tonderai Ndiraya, an ex-DeMbare coach who was sacked in November last year and went on to assume duty at Simba Bhora, has declared that his boys believe they can still do better.
“We are not losing hope. We will keep fighting and make sure we correct our mistakes ahead of our next game against Dynamos. I was really disappointed by the way we conceded against Chicken Inn.
However, the boys went on to fight,” said Ndiraya.
While his side boasts of experienced and quality arsenal in the form of combative Partson Jaure, Vaselli Kawe and pintsized midfield workhorse Ronald Chitiyo, among others, Ndiraya will have to be wary of Paga, enterprising Issa Sadiki, roving Emmanuel Jalai, Junior Makunike and ginger haired Tanaka Shandirwa, who is arguably DeMbare’s find of the season.
Mangombe, who has been in charge of Dynamos for only two weeks, on an interim basis, has been working on strategies to unlock a reportedly ultra-defensive mechanism by today’s opponents.
“Coach Ndiraya is very good at defending so we tried to work on how we could penetrate them. We are emphasizing on ball possession that is tika-taka but with a bias towards quick transition, creating scoring chances,” he said.
In their first meet of the season, the two clubs played a nil all draw in a match that was played at the National Sports Stadium in Harare. Meanwhile, relegation threatened Yadah Stars and Sheasham will also square it off this afternoon at Mhondoro’s Baobab Stadium.
Yadah Stars will need a plethora of miracles to overcome a seemingly rejuvenated Sheasham side. With the former coming from a 3-1 away loss at the hands of Premier Soccer League returnees Hwange, Sheasham head coach Lizwe Sweswe reckoned it would not be good to read much into their opponents’ past results.
“We will not look much into their past games as that will be a big mistake from us. Games always change and from our side morale is high in camp. We have no injury worries and we are praying for a positive result,” Sweswe who in the last couple of weeks masterminded the Construction Boys’ two consecutive victories over former league champions FC Platinum and Chicken Inn. Yadah Stars are second from the bottom with 17 points.
Sheasham occupy the last relegation slot with 20 points to their name. – @FungaiMuderere.
Online Reporter