Chronicle Editor
Fungai Muderere, Senior Sports Reporter
IT’S seven million “claimed fans”, It’s DeMbare, It’s the Glamour Boys on the Horizon!
Put it short, deep in the bowels of Obed Itani Stadium of Francistown in Botswana, the country’s only representatives in inter-club football Dynamos, will hope to put the icing on the cake when they face Orapa United in a second-leg first-round match that carries a ticket to the lucrative group stage.
The first instalment played seven days ago, DeMbare were the dominant team throughout the game, with Shadreck Nyahwa controlling the midfield alongside Donald Mudadi, although they were let down by poor finishing from Elton Chikona, Nomore Chinyerere and Emmanuel Paga.
Substitute Valentine Kadonzvo became a timely gift when he snatched the much-needed victory, five minutes before regulation time. It was a sweet victory from the blue and white camp, under the guidance of candid Llyod “MaBlanyo” Chingowe.
MaBlanyo is a man who has in a couple of weeks, on an interim basis, changed the face of DeMbare. The Glamour Boys are yet to taste defeat both in the jungles of African football and on the local scene since the lanky MaBlanyo took over.
Question: Can this lanky coach really exorcise the 33-year-old football ghost that has continuously denied DeMbare of their glamour in reaching the final of a continental final?
Answer: Only time will tell when the centre man calls it a day in Zimbabwe’s neighbouring country. DeMbare are on the threshold of qualifying for the group stages of Caf’s second-tier inter-club tournament for the first time in three decades plus three.
The Glamour Boys have one foot in the group stages after a fine 1-0 win in the first leg, which was also played in Botswana last Sunday.
“We can still do it. It needs all the respect from our side. We cannot underestimate our opponents after the first leg win. It will be a hard match for our opponents but we will need to progress to the next stage,” said Chigowe.
Chigowe’s charges are yet to concede a goal in four-and-half hours of action on their return to the Caf inter-club tournaments after a decade-long absence.
A 2-1 defeat on Sunday will take Orapa United through, on the away goals rule even though both games would have been played in their backyard.
It has been reported that Caf have stuck to the away goals rule even though Uefa has moved away from using this system to determine winners of such clashes.
The Confederation Cup is the new millennium version of the Cup Winners Cup, a tournament in which Dynamos qualified for the quarter-finals in 1991.
That DeMbare side thrashed Maxaquene of Mozambique 7-1 on aggregate in the first round before dismissing Diables Noirs of Congo-Brazzaville 3-1 on aggregate.
However, their journey ended in the quarter-finals when Dynamos crashed to a 1-4 aggregate loss to BCC Lions of Nigeria. BBC Lions went all the way to the final where they lost 5-4 to Power Dynamos of Zambia.
Having already crushed a Zambian side in the campaign, Dynamos will be hoping they can borrow a leaf from their Copperbelt namesake and not only reach the final but win this year’s Confederation Cup. Those dreams can only come true if they clear today’s hurdle in Botswana.
It’s Lets Go DeMbare, Lets Go MaBlanyo, It’s Yours! – @FungaiMuderere
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter