First Term Reports

The Green Machine, bidding for their first league championship crown in eight years, find themselves in a worse off position, in terms of points on the board after the first term, compared to the time when Northern Irishman Sean Connor was in charge last year.

The Big Four completed the first 10 league games of the 2013 Castle Lager Premiership campaign, which represent a third of the marathon and the first of three terms, last weekend, with Highlanders and CAPS United — the two home teams — falling while the two away teams — Dynamos and FC Platinum — picked points on the road.

The Glamour Boys stretched their unbeaten start to the season to 10 games after edging bitter city rivals, CAPS United, 1-0 in a Harare Derby showdown that failed to explode and fizzled out into a big yawn at the National Sports Stadium — terribly short on quality and marginally long on mediocrity.

FC Platinum came within seconds of securing a key victory on the road, as they led Monomotapa 1-0 with the minimum four minutes of time added on have elapsed at Rufaro on Saturday, but Ronald “Rooney” Chitiyo, outstanding all day for the hosts, finally got his due rewards for an outstanding performance by poking home the equaliser.

Bosso were beaten in their Fortress Barbourfields by How Mine, the surprise packages of this season in the first term of the campaign, whose coalition of nomadic journeymen, led by the ageless Hebert Dick, refused to crumble, after going down, and fought back to post an impressive 2-1 victory and move into third place on the table.

FC Platinum, who invested in a good coach who prefers to lead a stable football club that dominates the headlines for its football and results rather than for its colourful roadshows and public displays of its massive financial weight, lead the Premiership race with a one-point advantage of Highlanders.

Zambian coach Tennant Chilumba’s brief is to restore FC Platinum as a competitive team once again, taking them close to the heights they scaled in their first season in the Premiership when they came within just a home draw, against Dynamos, of an historic league title success story.

And, in his first term in charge, the Zambian gaffer has succeeded in his mission as FC Platinum, who turned into an elaborate joke last season in a spectacular plunge from grace that saw the team become very ordinary in a turbulent second half of the season, have become very competitive.

They picked their first point against Dynamos, since coming into the Premiership, ending a depressing four-run losing streak at the hands of the Glamour Boys, by forcing a 2-2 draw at Rufaro in which the hosts had to come from behind, after conceding two quick goals, to salvage the point through leading scorer Washington Pakamisa.

After 10 games this season, FC Platinum are three points better than their points’ tally, at the same stage last season and, crucially, they have the best return in the entire league with the 21 points in their bag.

Compared to the 2011 season, when they made their grand entrance into the Premiership, FC Platinum are four points better, after the first 10 league matches, than they were then.

Last year, FC Platinum trailed both Highlanders and Dynamos, after the first 10 league games, but this season the Zvishavane miners occupy pole position after winning one more game, to make it half-a-dozen wins, and losing one less game when compared to the same period last season.

If their defence had just managed to hang on and prevented “Rooney” from scoring that big equaliser, FC Platinum would have been talking of five points difference, when compared to the first term last season, and that shows progress.

There is nothing, in terms of difference, to their strikeforce as they have scored 17 goals this season, compared to 18 goals last year at the same stage, but it’s the defence that Chilumba has sorted out, even without the services of the man he brought in to bring stability to that area — fellow Zambian Aaron Katebe.

The miners have only conceded eight goals in 10 games, so far this season, and that is a better return than 12 goals in the same number of games last year and 11 goals in 2011.

Highlanders are in second place but their 20-point harvest, in the first term, is four points less than what Kevin Kaindu and his men had taken at the same stage of the campaign last season and, crucially, they have already lost twice, in the first 10 games, when they only lost once the whole of last year.

Bosso were unbeaten, all season, at Fortress Barbourfields and they were rewarded for that good run by amassing the highest number of points in the marathon, matched only by Dynamos, with the Harare side winning the championship by virtue of a superior goal difference.
At this point last season, Bosso had won seven games, now they have won six and where they had scored 23 goals, in 10 games, they have scored six goals less this term while nothing, really, has changed in their defence.

Two years ago, Bosso had 20 points, after the first 10 games, and were seven points better than DeMbare who, somehow, managed to turn it around in the business stage of the marathon and emerged as the champions.

The Glamour Boys have exactly the same number of points that they had, at this stage of the season last year, (18) and the only difference is that Callisto Pasuwa and his men are still unbeaten, while they had already lost twice at this point in 2012, and have converted their losses into draws.

DeMbare have won one fewer game, compared to last year, and drawn three more games but their refusal to be beaten, including an incredible fightback that saw them rescue a point in the dying moments of their match against Bosso at Rufaro, has boosted their cause.

So much has been said about the poor strikeforce at DeMbare this year, after an off-season when they lost Denver Mukamba, Simba Sithole and Rodreck Mutuma and a mid-season when they lost Takesure Chinyama.

But statistics will show that after 10 games last year, Dynamos, with their all-star strikers around, had scored 16 goals and the group that is at the club today, which has come under heavy criticism, has scored 14 — the difference is just two.

That is a far better return that the squad that their fans madly fell in love with, after its 4-1 destruction of MC Alger in a Champions League tie, as that group only managed eight goals, in the first 10 league games in 2011, and DeMbare had 13 points then, five less than they have now.

CAPS United struggled at the beginning of the season last year when Connor, probably burdened by a 23-match losing streak in his last job at Galway United in Europe, arrived on the scene and found that his adjustment to life in the domestic Premiership wasn’t as easy as he had hoped.

Connor’s CAPS United did not win a league match, on the field, in his first six games in charge with the only three points coming via the boardroom when Motor Action chose not to fulfil their tie against the Green Machine at Gwanzura.

There were three losses to Chicken Inn, Gunners and Monoz and two draws against Shabanie and Harare City during that run, which yielded just five out of a possible 18 points.

But while so much criticism was thrown at Connor, the brutal reality is that, after 10 games, his CAPS United, with 17 points thanks to a rebound that saw them winning four straight games, was in a better position than where the Green Machine are today with 15 points.

There has been an improvement, in terms of goals scored (13 this year compared to 10 last year) but the defence, which had conceded just eight last year, including a 0-3 boardroom scoreline injection following the abandonment of their tie against Chicken Inn, now has conceded 11.

CAPS United, after 10 games, are just one point better this year than they were in 2011, under Moses Chunga, when they enjoyed a storming start but then ran into turbulence, and found themselves with 14 points after the first term.

But Chunga’s men were entertainers, with their goals, and has scored 18 goals by then, five better than their tally this year.