admin
Tadious Manyepo
Sports Reporter
KHAMA BILLIAT is cursing his CAPS United luck again.
The Yadah Stars talisman will not have a chance to play against the team that first gave him the platform to play in the domestic Premiership, this season.
After missing the first league instalment after being red-carded in the game preceding the Green Machine, Billiat will again sit out the second leg through another suspension.
The 33-year-old received his third yellow card in Yadah’s 1-0 win over Herentals at the Heart Stadium on Wednes-day.
Ironically, it was in the match against the Students in the reverse fixture that Billiat got his marching orders result-ing in him missing the first leg against Makepekepe.
And the Yadah play-maker says he would have wanted to play against his former paymasters when Yadah face Makepekepe at Rufaro on Sunday.
But before Yadah and CAPS United face-off, Zimbabwe’s representatives in the CAF Confederation Cup Dynamos will have little time to lick the wounds of their agonising second, preliminary round exit, as they shift focus to the local league.
The Glamour Boys failed to progress to the group phase of the second-tier continental club contest after losing 3-1 on penalties to Orapa United of Botswana last Sunday.
They had beaten their opponents 1-0 a week earlier at the Obed Itani Chilume Stadium in Francistown before they lost by a similar margin to force penalties at the same venue on Sunday.
And they will set out to finish the season strongly by weaving out wins in the league starting with tomorrow’s clash against Herentals at Rufaro.
Dynamos will also face Yadah in their delayed Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final match in a game the Miracle Boys will have Billiat back.
But for this weekend’s league assignment, Billiat would have to be content with watching from the terraces as Ya-dah tackles a CAPS United side, wounded by their mid-week 2-0 defeat at Hwange.
The Warriors’ star is disappointed at missing out on Sunday’s assignment.
He said he never had the scenario in his mind when he was mesmerising for the Miracle Boys on Wednesday.
“It’s unfortunate that I ended up in the referee’s book in this match (against Herentals).
“You know when you are in a game, you want to give it your all, and some of these things happen but I am disap-pointed.
“I wasn’t thinking about the yellow card and the possibility of missing the game against CAPS United. I was thinking about the match against Herentals and doing everything and giving everything for my team,” said Billiat.
“I would have wanted to play against CAPS United being my former team but, unfortunately, I will be missing out.
“It’s even more painful realising that I also missed the first leg after being red-carded in the game against Her-entals.
“But you can’t do anything to fate. That’s how things can be in football and I can only back my teammates to do well against CAPA United on Sunday.”
CAPS United and their coach Lloyd Chitembwe have a special place in Billiat’s heart and it would have been inter-esting to see how he would have fared against them in the league.
When Billiat quit football to take up ghetto hustles in Mufakose, it was Chitembwe who gave him a hand and pro-vided him with a chance to play football at Makepekepe.
It was during his short stint at CAPS United that Billiat was identified and snapped up by former South Africa top-flight side Ajax Cape Town in 2010 from where he would move to Mamelodi Sundowns where he then trans-formed himself into the superstar he is.
“Facing CAPS United and coach Lloyd Chitembwe would have been very emotional for me,” added Billiat.
“It is at this team that I was given a chance and it is coach Chitembwe, a father figure himself, who helped me a lot in terms of fine-tuning me into a player that I then became.
“I owe CAPS United a lot and I have so much respect for coach Chitembwe. So, it would have been an emotional return to face my coach and my club.
“But football is like that and that’s how things are,” he said.
Tomorrow, Dynamos who last played a league match three weeks ago when settling for a goalless draw against TelOne at Bata, will face Herentals with some emotional scars after their captain Frank Makarati, and defender Tendaishe Magwaza were injured in a road accident on Tuesday night.
The pair is in a stable condition but they will not be part of the team tomorrow.
Coach Lloyd “Mablanyo” Chigowe believes the Glamour Boys can win the match after gaining some key lessons in their short-lived African adventure.
“We remain intact, as a unit and I am proud of the boys’ performance in the CAF Confederation Cup, they gave their all but it’s unfortunate on the fateful day luck was not on our side,” said Chigowe.
“Unfortunately, we will miss the captain Frank Makarati and Tendaishe Magwaza after they were involved in an accident but we would need to gather a team, we have got a 30-man squad and we are up for it.
“We hope we can finish strongly and get a respectable position in the league and fight in the Chibuku Super Cup.
“We know the Premier League is very tricky, there are no easy games, and one can see how teams are dropping points, the most consistent team in the league is Simba Bhora.
“But at the end of the day, we have to find that consistency that can take us past these teams.
“We are going to play Herentals, a tough and tricky side, then Yadah who are enjoying a purple patch.
“So, we have to plan thoroughly for both games then we have the local derby next Sunday, so it’s not a stroll in the park but we have to prepare the boys for all of it,” Chigowe said.
Online Reporter