dyton mupawaenda
Sharuko on Saturday
THIS was Lloyd Mutasa’s finest hour — Rufaro dancing to his orchestra, his name being printed in gold colours and his swashbuckling rookies having transformed themselves into heroes.
Denver Mukamba, in his first taste of continental football, was the talisman, his raw talent a beacon of hope, his brilliance providing the X-Factor and his silky skills a throwback to a time when DeMbare was the home of stars.
His birth certificate said he was in the final year of his teenage years, that he was 19, and would only be 20 on December 20 that year, but what he displayed on the pitch that day was the stuff of veterans.
Mukamba capped a man-of-the match performance when he scored the best goal of the afternoon in the 78th minute.
He gained space on the edge of the box, dribbled past two men, turned a third marker before unleashing a curling shot with his left foot, which nestled into the far post.
The boy from Highfield, where David Mandigora came from, where Shacky Tauro came from, was simply irresistible that afternoon, toying with his Algerian opponents as if they were a mere Sunday League social team.
MC Alger, champions of Africa in 1976, the very year that the greatest Dynamos side of all-time swept the board and were crowned champions of Southern Africa, had just been destroyed at Rufaro.
The date showed that it was March 20, 2011.
And Mutasa and his men had just completed a four-goal thrashing of the Algerians with Mukamba, Guthrie Zhokinyi, Rodreck Mutuma and Farai Vimisayi on target.
The Glamour Boys dominant show, spiced with a fluent passing game, left the Algerians in awe and sent the 30 000-strong home crowd into delirium on an afternoon where memories, which will last a lifetime, were created.
A 6-1 win for the dominant Glamour Boys would not have flattered the home side and, in a way, would have been a fair return for their grand efforts that afternoon.
It’s important to emphasise that this was during a time when DeMbare were the people’s team, representing millions of fans before Bernard Marriot hijacked it and converted what used to be an iconic football franchise into his family’s tuck shop and ATM.
A needless and clumsy tackle by Mukamba in time added on, which gave us the first glimpse of his flawed character despite his bag of talent, gave the Algerians a penalty, and a lifeline, to carry some hope.
For some of us, who have covered the game on the continent for decades, we knew this was the opportunity the Algerians needed to use all the dark arts to try and steal this game in their backyard.
And, that’s exactly what they did.
MC Alger staged the closest drama to the hit Netflix series show “Money Heist” with a shameless Sunday Night Robbery, disguised as a CAF Champions League match, on the shores of the Mediterranean.
An amazing 36 free-kicks, and a penalty, were awarded to the hosts, while the time added on appeared unlimited, to give them as much time as they needed to try and score the goal they required to squeeze through, to the next round.
Zhokinyo and Archford Gutu were sent off and seven yellow cards were dished towards their teammates — Mukamba, Mutuma, Washington Arubi, Patrick Khumbula, Devon Chafa, George Magariro, Denver Mukamba and Thomas Magorimbo.
Mutuma was left with a swollen eye after being repeatedly punched by the home team’s defenders, in incidents which were ignored by Egyptian referee, Fahim Omar.
By the end of this farce MC Alger won the match 3-0, exactly the result which they needed, to go through on the away goals rule.
THE HEIST IN ALGIERS BROKE MUTASA’S SOUL
But, thank God, the bad boys who specialise in dark arts don’t always win and, soon, MC Alger were out of the tournament and, in a way, the football gods appeared to be punishing them.
Since that Sunday Night Robbery, in Algiers, MC Alger turned into a house of chaos and, by March 2021, a decade after that farce, they had 23 coaching changes. Amid that turbulence, they became a football Siamese twin, to Chippa United of South Africa.
For Mutasa and his men, the burden of the psychological battering they received, on that horror night in Algiers, meant DeMbare were never the same team, in the Champions League.
Just five months later, Mutasa was gone, having been forced to resign from Dynamos amid a run of poor results as his men struggled to recover from the horror of the pain which they endured that night in Algiers.
Kalisto Pasuwa took over and transformed the Glamour Boys into champions, not only for that season, but for the next four years.
Maybe, we should have known that afternoon at Rufaro, when they destroyed MC Alger, that this was a Dynamos team which was good enough for a four-peat success story in the domestic championship.
Today, no one talks about the work that Mutasa did, in laying a strong foundation for that prolonged spell when DeMbare were repeatedly crowned league champions.
In a way, this has been part of Mutasa’s story as a coach, the man who hardly gets any credit for the fine work he does, an honest hardworking fellow who, like everyone else, has his flaws but is a genuinely good human being.
He has a strong commitment to his job and while both his colleagues — Pasuwa and Lloyd Chitembwe — have championships under their belt, Mutasa has so far had to contend with Division One titles.
The closest he came to winning the league championship was in 2017 when Mutasa guided Dynamos into second-place, two points behind champions FC Platinum.
In the end, it all came down to the first game of the season, which Dynamos lost to FC Platinum 0-1 at home, and had they forced a draw in that game, DeMbare would have been champions with 71 points, one more than the Zvishavane side.
After that opening match, Dynamos accrued 70 points from 33 games while FC Platinum accrued 69 points from as many games, with DeMbare winning 21 games and the Zvishavane side winning 19.
Despite this impressive campaign, Mutasa was forced out of Dynamos just five months later, and was reinstated after a month, before the two parties split for good in August.
The man who replaced him that time, Lloyd “MaBlanyo” Chigowe, is still in the DeMbare trenches and his men have scored just once in 10 games in a nightmarish start to this campaign.
SAMAITA DESERVES HIS DUE REWARD
In sharp contrast Mutasa has guided newboys MWOS to the top of the PSL table, his men have scored nine goals in their opening 10 games, and are unbeaten in the championship race.
What is even more spectacular is that MWOS have conceded just two goals so far this season which, in a way, is a throwback to the coaching manual which Mutasa’s coach Sunday Chidzambwa employed during their days at DeMbare.
Mhofu’s formula was as simple as it was effective — if we don’t concede, we will not lose the game.
Old rivals Scottland are within touching distance, sitting in second place, and having beaten both Dynamos and CAPS United without conceding a goal in those two games at Rufaro.
Mutasa has repeatedly emphasised that his team’s main mission is to remain in the PSL for another season, which is a fair assessment given that they had to come into the top-flight league through the boardroom.
He has been around for a long time to know that the real tests will come and things will get tougher and tougher as the season goes on.
But, the people of Norton have a right to dream big and even carry the hopes that their team will be crowned league champions at the end of the season.
If that happens, the football gods would have finally given Lloyd Mutasa his due rewards after years of toiling in our football trenches and, on many occasions, being undone by things he had absolutely no control over.
In my little book, Mutasa is the unluckiest football coach in this country and the football gods, whoever they are, have not given him a fair deal because by now he deserved to have won a championship.
We have coaches who have done less than half of what Mutasa has given to our football but, for one reason or another, including the use of unorthodox means, found themselves celebrating winning the championship.
We have coaches who have found themselves at the right place at the right time and, largely driven by the resources of their club, have managed to win the championship while good guys like Mutasa can only keep waiting and hoping.
We have to admire Mutasa’s fearlessness to accept the tough role of coaching a club like Dynamos, which is usually a combination of circus and turbulence at times, and – as we saw that afternoon in 2011 – and it’s something that should eventually be rewarded with a league title. I’m not sure when that will happen but it has to happen at some point.
In a strange way, Mutasa also provides MaBlanyo will hope that despite the pathetic way he has started the season, it doesn’t mean that DeMbare can’t fight back to make an impression in the championship race
The Glamour Boys Class of 2017 lost their opening four home games by an identical 0-1 scoreline but still found a way to storm back in the championship race and, at the end, finished just two points behind FC Platinum.
That March afternoon in 2011, Lloyd Mutasa showed us that he can produce something special and, 14 years later, we shouldn’t be surprised his team is top of the table.
Finally, just finally, he appears to have found his perfect home.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Khamaldinhoooooooooooooooooo!
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