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Dingilizwe Ntuli Sports Editor
BIG clubs should always end every season with silverware for them to be considered successful. Highlanders finally reasserted their status as one of the big boys of domestic football by edging league champions Chicken Inn 1-0 in an entertaining all-Bulawayo Easycall Cup final at Barbourfields Stadium yesterday.
Ralph Matema’s 40th minute penalty conversion was enough to hand Bosso their first major silverware since winning the Mbada Diamonds Cup in 2013.
Bosso did not only face the league champions, but a team under the tutelage of Coach of the Year Joey Antipas and had in its starting line-up the 2015 Soccer Star of the Year Danny Phiri, Goalkeeper of the Year Elvis Chipezeze and two other Soccer Star of the Year finalists.
They would not have been given any chance against a team that had come from behind on many occasions in league matches to be crowned champions.
In the midst of the wild celebrations that accompanied the final whistle in yesterday’s match, there is one man whose stock rose dramatically – Highlanders’ caretaker coach Amini Soma-Phiri.
By guiding Bosso to the Easycall Cup victory, Soma-Phiri has made an irresistible case to be appointed as the substantive coach.
In fact, since replacing Bongani Mafu in September, Soma-Phiri together with interim technical advisor Cosmas Zulu, have given Bosso back their identity and fans began witnessing the real face of the Bulawayo giants again in the last matches of the season.
After adopting a team in a state of stalled transition in September, Soma-Phiri guided Bosso to five wins, one draw and three defeats in the league, and won all three matches in the Easycall Cup. The road to the Easycall Cup final wasn’t easy as Bosso beat fancied FC Platinum 1-0 in the quarter-fnals in Zvishavane and old enemy Dynamos 2-1 in the semi-final to set an all-Bulawayo final.
Soma-Phiri lifted Bosso from the brink of a relegation fight to finish sixth and surely these stats demand that he be considered as more than just a caretaker at Bosso.
We hope this is acknowledged by the club’s executive as there is presently nothing stopping them from carrying on with Soma-Phiri as he has got the team performing well again. He deserves all the compliments for what he has done so far. He has restored Bosso’s confidence with a very calm attitude and has improved contact with the players and created harmony. That harmony could be felt in the victories against FC Platinum and Dynamos as well as in yesterday’s final.
We are hearing names of different coaches linked to Highlanders, but maybe the secret is to keep Soma-Phiri, a loyal son of the club, and give him another former player as an assistant; direct them on the mission and vision the club have and see what is going to happen.
Soma-Phiri has instilled his own philosophy, which we believe a foreign coach will dismantle and take longer to adapt. It’s high time we showed confidence in our own local coaches instead of wasting money hiring expensive foreign coaches for no results.
Soma-Phiri has done a marvellous job and we don’t think the Bosso leadership has any argument against him continuing, so they should just give him the job.
Online Reporter