Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
MAVERICK Dynamos midfielder Denver Mukamba is at it again.
Impressive, charismatic and seemingly a larger-than-life character but with scrambled software.
The lanky midfielder emerged from nowhere in July and was denied a chance to rejoin the Glamour Boys by then coach Saul Chaminuka.
But a month later, Zambian gaffer Kelvin Kaindu didn’t think twice when given a chance to take him on board.
A couple of times and significantly so, Mukamba brought the magic that would eventually save Dynamos from relegation.
But old habits die hard
The former Warriors captain is back to his old ways.
Just a day before Dynamos leave for Gibbo where they will face Triangle in the Chibuku Super Cup final, Mukamba is nowhere to be seen and is absent without official leave from DeMbare.
He is a man who was expected to bring that golden touch to take Dynamos to an unprecedented third Chibuku Super Cup glory on the bounce.
But Kaindu will have to look for inspiration from elsewhere within the club.
Mukamba did not show up for training yesterday when Kaindu conducted his fine-tuning drills, a session routine he then used to pick his squad for tomorrow’s final.
The Zambian gaffer while bemoaning the veteran midfielder’s absence chose to focus on the players available for selection.
He insisted that there would be no special treatment for any player beyond the training schedule they have held.
“No, no, no. The final team selection is today (yesterday),’’ Kaindu said.
Tomorrow (today) we are travelling. We just do light training.
“So today is the last day for our team selection. That’s why I said for those who are not available for selection, we can’t even say there is a last session where we can give them a chance to be available.
“If the people are not available today (yesterday), that means they are not available for selection for the camp.”
Kaidu, however, acknowledged that Mukamba’s absence in the massive cup final assignment was a huge blow.
“Yeah, it is. It is. He’s an influential player. I think having Denver on the field, whether he’s playing or he’s not playing, gives you an advantage,” said Kaindu.
“I think he’s a crowd favourite and we know what Denver can do. But if he’s not here in training, what can we do?”
Dynamos will also be missing Wisdom Mutasa, who is doing his CAF D coaching badge. But Kaindu said all that won’t throw a damper on his team heading into a match where they have a chance to complete what would then turn out to be a fairytale season of some sort for them.
Dynamos fought hard to secure their Premiership status which they only confirmed on the last day of the season.
Yet they can still write a success story for the season if they win the Chibuku Super Cup that comes with a ticket to the CAF Confederation Cup.
“Yeah, we’ve come to the end of the soccer season for 2025.
“It has been a very, very difficult season for Dynamos.
“Not easy, especially since we were able to survive on the last day.
“We said earlier on that Dynamos is a big team that is not supposed to be celebrating surviving relegation, but the competition is getting tougher and tougher.
“We need to up our game as well. But coming to the cup game, the only cup that is there, probably this is our only consolation that we have.
“Hopefully this is what can make us celebrate at the end of the day.’’
Kaindu is also wary of Dynamos’ poor record in the Lowveld.
“We are playing Triangle; tricky team playing at home.
“Our record has not been good against Triangle when we are playing at Gibbo.
“But we also want to focus on what we have achieved in the last few games that we have played and remained unbeaten.
“And we just hope that we build from that confidence even as we go to play the cup final.
“Our first objective was to avoid being relegated, and yet we said probably the only thing that we have is the cup, which we have progressed, I think, from penalty shoot-outs.
“We have always been the team that has been outstanding.
“We have been good, and we want to hope and believe that we still have that pedigree and we still have that advantage.
“But we are quite optimistic that in this final we don’t want to stretch as far as penalties.
“Hopefully it can be decided in 90 minutes.
“I think, to sum it up, I think it would be better for us to end with a trophy.”
Triangle will be hoping to win their second Chibuku Super Cup final on home soil after grabbing the 2018 crown when constricting then defending champions Harare City with a 2-0 win. Their current coach, Genesis Mangombe is the one who guided Dynamos to their first Chibuku Super Cup when masterminding a 2-0 win over Ngezi at Baobab in 2023.
And Kaindu knows all those dynamics could work against his team with the coach himself also desperate to lay his hands on this trophy for the first time.
“Triangle have the advantage, they are playing at home, they are still, according to the draw, still at home, we thought probably when the team is playing at their home ground you put them as an away team just to allow the other team to feel comfortable.
“But it’s different, Triangle are at home, they are still at home, and it makes it a bit tricky.
“We also tried to ask for a training venue so that we could just familiarise ourselves with the pitch, which we have not been successful at.
“So, the advantage is more on their side but this is a cup final, it’s different from a league game. We want to get into this final with a proper mindset; whatever advantages or disadvantages are there we just want to focus on the game.”
