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had a dosage of controversy at Rufaro on Sunday.
The decision by DeMbare players to sacrifice the spirit of Fair Play and attack their opponents, which led directly to the second goal scored by Farai Mupasiri, angered the coalminers and gave a twist of controversy to a good afternoon of football.
That day Pasuwa completed 50 league matches, in charge of the Glamour Boys, and watched his team turn on an impressive first-half show before running out of gas in the second period where they hung dearly to protect their slender lead.
His captain, Murape Murape, chose to watch the action from Vietnam, having been suspended for this game after accumulating three years cards, and joined the cheerleaders who were pushing their boys to try and grind a victory that pushed them within five points of the leaders.
In 21 months in the job, since taking over from his old friend and teammate Lloyd Mutasa in August 2011, Pasuwa has led DeMbare in 50 league matches, won 33 of the games, drew 13 and lost only four matches.
Pasuwa is unbeaten against the heavyweights of the domestic Premiership – Highlanders, CAPS United and FC Platinum – and has only lost to Masvingo United, Chicken Inn, Monomotapa and Harare City in league matches.
The rest of the Premiership are yet to get a taste of how it feels to get one over the DeMbare coach.
Incredibly, Dynamos have only conceded two goals in one match just twice, since Pasuwa took over as coach, which goes to show their defensive discipline and how it has come to be a big part of their success story.
Hwange were the first team to score twice against the Glamour Boys, in that ill-fated league match last year where Nation Dube claimed he was assaulted by the Harare giants’ marshals at Rufaro, while FC Platinum were the only other team to score twice when they held out to their first draw against the champions at Rufaro in a 2-2 draw recently.
In 30 of those league matches, stretching over 2 700 minutes, the opponents failed to score against Pasuwa’s men.
The champions could complete a marathon 11 months, without suffering defeat in a league match in their fortress in the capital, if they avoid defeat against bitter rivals CAPS United in the Harare Derby at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.
It’s one of the domestic Premiership’s milestones, which has largely gone on unnoticed, that the Glamour Boys have not lost a league match, in the capital, since crashing to a 0-1 defeat at the hands of Harare City at Rufaro on June 20 last year.
Bigboy Mawiwi’s men, then newboys in the top-flight league, needed a goal in time-added on from Quinton Masika to beat their illustrious rivals in the last league match that the Harare giants would lose, in home territory, in a run that has now stretched for about 300 days.
Unbeaten since the start of their defence of the league championship, in a run that has been quite poor by their standards, DeMbare now face their biggest city rivals on Sunday hoping to complete 11 months, without defeat, in a league match in the capital.
Denver Mukamba was sent off in that game by referee Ruzive Ruzive, for a second bookable offence, and DeMbare never recovered without their talisman and leaked a last-gasp goal scored by Masika for the difference.
Interestingly, the game against the Green Machine comes just a day short of the moment DeMbare should be marking 11 months without being beaten, in the capital, and a draw or victory for them will take their incredible journey another step forward.
Promise Chabata, as die-hard a DeMbare fan as they will ever come, flew into Harare on Saturday, from his base in Johannesburg hoping to watch the Harare Derby, only to learn on arrival that the big match will be played this coming weekend.
Chabata ended up watching the low-key tie against Hwange and while it never lived up to its fireworks in the opening stages, with the second half staggering at a dull pace, he was relieved that his team got all three points, having needed to battle long and hard in the second half, to creep within five points of the leaders.
“When I looked at my fixture list to do the flight bookings to come here for the Harare Derby I was so sure that it was on this weekend because that is what the fixture appeared to be telling me, that the Hwange game would be played in mid-week and the big one today (Sunday),” said Chabata.
“Unfortunately, I have just found out that the mid-week games were not played this week and I have to watch this one and making further arrangements to come for the big one next week will be a bit difficult but that is the life of a football fan.”
What Chabata saw in the second half, as his team struggled to protect its slender lead after having dominated the first period without putting the game to bed, was just this unique character that has helped them keep marching forward, even when they are in the eye of a storm on the domestic front, in matches that he is unable to watch.
For Pasuwa’s DeMbare have become a very difficult team to beat, on the domestic front.
Last night his skipper Murape, a constant feature in all those matches, said his group of Glamour Boys were writing a beautiful story but getting very little credit for that.
“When you look at the statistics, where we have come from when the coach came in and where we are today, there is no doubt that we have done an absolutely wonderful job as a team and everyone must be congratulated for a job well done,” said Murape.
“We were struggling when he came in, we had just drawn against Black Mambas and it was felt that there should be changes and when you look at what we have done, playing all the time under pressure, to turn things around, I think we have done very well.
“We are not probably the most exciting team to watch but we are a team that never believes that it is going to be beaten and that was clearly shown when we played Highlanders and right up to the final whistle we were still attacking and getting corner kicks.
“The coach has given us this mentality that we should never accept defeat and I think it’s something that he picked during his playing days because they also used to have some memorable comebacks back then.
“It’s something that should be celebrated, the fact that we have come this long, and we are yet to lose a league game in Harare in about 18 months because every team wants to beat us and we have made sure that will not be handed on a silver plate.”
Murape said they were in a good position to defend their championship and make it three titles in a row, something which he feels is now more difficult given the high turnover of star players at the club every post-season.
“It has been done before but when you look at the Dynamos teams of the ‘80s, they stayed together for a long time and the stars never left and every year there would be an addition of some new and very good players,” said Murape.
“But our case is now different because you can just count the number of star players that we have lost in the past few months and you can see what I am talking about.
“However, we are Dynamos and that is more important than any of the star players because the team is bigger than anyone and I think we have the right coach to guide us in such tough times and it’s good to hear that he now has 50 games under his belt coaching us, which is not an easy thing.”
Pasuwa’s League Story As Dynamos Coach
P W D L F A Pts
50 33 13 4 92 24 112
Success Rate – 74.66 percent
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