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Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
CASTLE Lager Premiership football top scorer William Manondo may not hit the ambitious target he set himself this season following a recent goal drought that has seen the CAPS United striker going five games without finding the back of the net.
The 31-year-old forward set himself sights on breaching the 20-goal mark.
But with the season now in the final home stretch, Manondo has endured a frustrating period extending six weeks after firing blanks in the games against Herentals, Tenax, Yadah, Triangle and lately Cranborne Bullets.
He last scored a goal on August 28 at Barbourfields against Highlanders when the Green Machine squandered a first-half lead to lose the match 2-1.
Manondo, who at some point averaged a goal per game during the first half of the season, is sitting on 15 goals with 30 games now gone in the season.
This means he would need to respond back in a big way and score at least five goals in the remaining four games.
CAPS United face FC Platinum in their next game at home and then travel to Chicken Inn before returning to Harare for the last two games against Bulawayo Chiefs and Dynamos.
Former CAPS United forward Stewart “Shutto” Murisa yesterday said the forward should not put himself under pressure, lest he would lose the plot in the Golden Boot race.
“I hope and pray that Manondo finds his scoring touch in the last four games. He has been doing so well and I would say he is the main reason why CAPS United have managed to stay afloat this season.
“My advice to him is that he should not lose focus because of whatever is going on at the moment. Of course, personal milestones are important but he should know that he plays for the team first and then goals will come.
“There is no reason why he should put himself under pressure at this point. He has to play his normal game. If the goals are to come they will still come,” said Murisa.
After crossing the floor from Harare City early this season, the former Zimbabwe international set sights on breaching the 20-goal mark, a feat that has not been achieved by any player in the last 10 domestic football seasons.
The last player to cross the threshold was Norman Maroto when he scored 22 goals for Gunners in 2010. Of course there have been bigger tallies in the yesteryear with the likes of Moses Chunga bagging 46 goals for Dynamos in the 1986 season while the late Peter “Thunderboots” Nyama is famed for his 62 goals in one season for Chibuku Sumba in the early 1970s.
Alois Bunjira won the Golden Boot with 23 goals for CAPS United in 1996 while ex-Amazulu’s Chewe Mulenga had 24 during the 1999-2000 season.
Zenzo Moyo scored 21 goals in Highlanders’ colours in 2002 and Nyasha Mushekwi, who at 35 years of age is still going strong in the Chinese Super League, equaled the feat when he also grabbed 21 goals for CAPS United in 2009.
But since Norman Maroto’s tally in 2010 no other player has managed to surpass 20 goals in the domestic premiership.
The benchmark looked under threat when Manondo started the season in imperial form after scoring eight in the first seven games.
However, inconsistency came to haunt him as the season progressed. CAPS United faced serious off-field challenges because of lack of financial resources but Manondo still looked on course even when he had scored 12 goals in 18 games just at the half way stage of the campaign.
But the recent loss of form is threatening all the prospects. Manondo has scored just three goals in the last 12 games. It was worse in the last five games and pressure could be mounting on the player to return to the scoresheet.
In fact, the goal famine has hit most of the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League top marksmen, with the exception of FC Platinum’s Walter Musona.
The FC Platinum man scored his 11th goal of the season at the weekend. Musona has been in such form that he scored five goals in the last four league matches and has forced himself into the Golden Boot race, after moving into joint second place with Chicken Inn’s Brian Muza.
The duo are four goals behind Manondo. But Muza appears to have lost steam. The former Talen Vision forward got off to a promising start in his debut Premiership season but recently spent three months without scoring before landing his 11th goal two weeks ago.
The same misfortune has struck Manica Diamonds’ Nyasha Chintuli, who has found it difficult to move from nine goals. Highlanders’ Lynoth Chikuhwa has also moved to 10 goals, but Musona was the only player on target among the Premiership’s top 10 leading scorers at the weekend.
Former Zimbabwe international Murisa said the poor conversion was a reflection of the lack of investment in development.
“We are talking of 30 games and the top scorer is on 15 goals, in my opinion the goal-scoring ratio is bad and it all boils down to lack of development. This has been going on for some years.
“We are not producing enough quality from the grassroots. It’s surprising these days clubs are jostling for players on the market every season and nothing is coming from their structures. Who do they think is producing those “ready-made’ players that they want?
“That is why we keep on recycling. In the past all the clubs used to have serious junior development structures and players would grow in the system up to the senior team. The juniors would feature as curtain raisers, some of us passed through that system and it helped us. Strangely, this has since been abandoned. It’s sad.
“We now depend on private academies but most of these academies do not teach the basics. Some of them are bogus at worst; they are there for money,” said Murisa.
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