Hosts’ negative football spoiled derby

Lovemore Dube, [email protected]

THE Bulawayo Derby, pitting hosts Chicken Inn against Highlanders, did not live up to expectations. Too much negative football by Chicken Inn, involving time-wasting and rough tackles — something the city clubs have grown to expect from visiting teams — robbed the game of its lustre.

For the older generation that watched the Highlanders-Zimbabwe Saints, Eagles v Highlanders and Eagles v Supersonic, the match went back home disappointed with what was on display. In the past, fans would go home content that the derby had served up a mouthful. It was as if clubs played 110 minutes rather than 90 minutes.

In any case, an average game of football has 66 minutes of combat action, with the other 24 minutes spent on substitutions, throw-ins, fouls and other minimal resumption of play delays. Players in the past delighted in every minute of the match being played.

The stakes were high. Rivalries would have been developed over time. Half of the players on the pitch would have clashed at some stage, be it at primary school, secondary school, boys’ club, junior league, plastic sectional ball matches or tussles over girls at nightspots.

There were battles fans did not know were being settled on the field of play on the day. A positive result for either player meant so much, far beyond the spectator’s joy — the boys would walk away with individual joy apart from the team’s three points or passage to the next round of a tournament.

The matches were see-saw battles where action flung from goalpost to goalpost with resolute defending, brilliant wing and midfield play and tactics changed by players on the field, with coaches folding their hands and allowing the battles to ensue.

For the fan on the terraces, there was no time to take a seat as there would be action on the edges. At one time, the goalkeeper is between the posts and just as the ball was about to cross the line, a defender scoops it out. On the other end, when play switches, the home team gets denied by the horizontal bar, quick counters, set plays in the build-up, shots on target. Even the substitutes are discussed and fans curse why the boy warming up was not taken up by their team, as he was best friends with their star midfielder.

The match result will be a topic for years. Nowadays, the so-called derbies are just any other fixture. One team finds itself up against a side with little content to excite the derby mood on the pitch.

Chicken Inn started with just Itai Mabhunu, Brendon Rendo and Lynoth Chikuhwa as the local content and they gave a derby fight on the pitch. Mabhunu, in particular, fought gallantly in defence of the bragging rights — it was all written on his face that he did not want to lose the battle. He commanded his troops like a real frontline soldier and was physically imposing in all tussles with Highlanders forwards, getting both the ball and the man.

Chikuhwa and Rendo tried their best, as they knew that their friends and family were divided as to who they wanted to win the tie. Highlanders started with eight Bulawayo boys who knew what the men on the terraces and at home expected. There was the added advantage of the derby bragging rights.

Perhaps it is no surprise that the other Chicken Inn players were content with negative traits like time-wasting and feigning injuries — something new for a Bulawayo team. In derbies, every player wants the action, they wanted the goals, the points and bragging rights.

With more imports on their side, the bigger component of the Chicken Inn side may not have understood the significance of the match. It was not about the three Castle Lager Premiership points, but the heart and soul of Chicken Inn in a city where Bosso stands out as the most popular side.

Instead of negative tactics and unsportsmanlike conduct, Chicken Inn, who had taken an early lead through a gem of a goal by Innocent Masiwa, should have buried Bosso in the first half. Chicken Inn had Highlanders under siege for the opening 45 minutes as a jaded Benjani Mwaruwari side chased shadows. One would have thought the players were on strike on match day as it was a lifeless display.

Perhaps Chicken Inn dug too much into Bosso’s problems prior to the match, where players went on strike ahead of the fixture over unpaid salaries.

Highlanders, over the years, always fulfills a fixture after a strike and rarely have they won.

A second-half surge gave fans a pulsating 45 minutes, and it was until the scoreline was 2-1 that Chicken Inn realised the folly of time-wasting against Highlanders before its fans.

Zimbabwe has a number of derbies that are still spoken of. Who would forget the Midlands derby between Bata and Ziscosteel, Shabanie Mine v Sunshine, Caps United and Dynamos with Misheck Chidzambwa up against Shaky Tauro, Joel Shambo v Stix M’tizwa in the Caps United clashes with Black Rhinos, Madinda Ndlovu versus Josphat Humbasha/Josphat Munetsi and the Nguboyenja and Mzilikazi rivalry in Obey Sova and Willard Khumalo/Mercedes Sibanda in the Chikwata and Amahlolanyama matches.

In the hot Hwange township of Makwika, Brazil and Kabwe, with some Hwange players in their line-ups, soccer fans travelled almost 12-15km to watch the tie.

Derbies are won by players on the field and even the best coaches in the world have alluded to that.

On Wednesday, Highlanders players poured forward in anticipation of rebounds, showing hunger to break the jinx and win their first league match in over seven months.

So Bosso leads the derby table with four points from two games after drawing the first with Bulawayo Chiefs 1-1.