Online Reporter
Curtworth Masango
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE obituaries for the “Pure Platinum Play” were written in haste, when Norman Mapeza packed his bags at the end of last season to answer the siren call of champions Scottland.
A collective shiver ran down the spine of the local game.
Without Mapeza on the touchline, many assumed the beautiful, methodical machine would rust.
Mapeza was not just a coach, he was the bedrock, the architect of a dynasty that turned a mining town into a fortress of domestic football dominance.
His departure felt less like a transfer and more like an extinction event.
Enter Joel Luphahla.
To say he walked into a storm is an understatement. He arrived for only his second season as a top-flight head coach, tasked with replacing a living legend. “Last season, I was nervous before every game, I didn’t know what would happen or if I would carry myself professionally,” said Luphahla.
But seven games into the new campaign, Luphahla has carried the weight of being compared to Mapeza.
On Sunday, against a Dynamos side desperate to rise on top of the log standings and seeking a win, FC Platinum dominated DeMbare in every department, in every blade of grass, in every conceivable aspect of the sport reflecting the “Pure Platinum Play”.
“This is my second year. I have some experience now,” said Luphahla.
“I will make mistakes, but I am a good student and confident I can hold my own against the league’s best coaches. Most things we work on in training pan out well. But we need to score more and win, so people can see our efforts paying off,” he said.
The passing triangles that Mapeza perfected remain intact. The defensive solidity is still there.
But Luphahla has added a subtle venom, a quicker vertical thrust that suggests he has studied the blueprint and then decided to add a new wing to the house.
The players look liberated, not lost. The worry was that without Mapeza’s imposing presence, the squad would suffer an identity crisis.
Instead, they look like a band that has found a new lead singer who hits all the high notes, but in a slightly different, thrilling key.
“I am a coach who wants to help players with their careers,” Luphahla said.
Seven games is a small sample size. The season is a marathon, not a sprint. But if Sunday’s symphony against Dynamos is any indication, the obituaries were not just premature. They were wrong.
WEEK SEVEN RESULTS
Yesterday
MWOS 1-0 Simba Bhora Sunday
Dynamos 1-1 FC Platinum, Highlanders 0-0 ZPC Kariba, Manica Diamonds 1-2 Herentals.
Saturday
Bulawayo Chiefs 0-0 Scottland, FC Hunters 1-1 Caps United, Hardrock 1-0 Agama, Ngezi Platinum 1-1 Triangle, TelOne 0-2 Chicken Inn
Mathew Masinge