admin
Tadious Manyepo-Sports Reporter
CAPS United . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (0) 1
ZPC Kariba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0
THIS Castle Lager Premier Soccer League tie at the National Sports Stadium yesterday was supposed to be a thriller, only that it lacked the goals.
But it still carried good enough qualities to be called a classic. The only goal, scored by debuting CAPS United midfielder Adrian Silla summed it all.
It was a beauty.
Magical.
Coming on as a 46th minute replacement for the ineffective Clive Rupiya, Silla stabilised the midfield and he looked threatening each time he had the ball on his feet.
And he conjured up magic with nine minutes still to play in this exciting match.
Receiving a pass from the impressive Godknows Murwira, Silla locked his marker Boid Mutukure with his left before rifling an angled shot past Tapiwa Chilenga in goals for the Kariba team.
So beautiful was the goal that both sets of coaches, Lloyd Chitembwe and his ZPC Kariba counterpart Darlington Dodo, saluted the former Highlanders man.
Both teams showed a lot of intent with openness that made the match an enjoyable encounter.
Coming into the game, both teams were yet to concede a goal and they were tied on four points having drawn once each and won as many times.
And it all came down to wits to settle this one. CAPS United took their tally to seven points while ZPC Kariba, with a single win and as many draws and defeats, are still of four points. It was CAPS United who dominated the early exchanges with Blessing Sarupinda, Innocent Zambezi and William Manondo especially impressive.
But the Green Machine couldn’t breach the organised ZPC Kariba wall although Manondo should have done better when heading over a Godknows Murwira cross.
Zambezi and Phineas Bamusi also came close but Chilenga thwarted them in the opening 25 minutes.
At the other end lively midfielders, Kudzanayi Dhemere and Tinotenda Chiunye, were denied by Makepekepe goalkeeper Tonderai Mateyaunga as the exciting duo threatened to rip the giants apart.
Although CAPS United incredibly stayed on their feet, ZPC Kariba controlled proceedings in the second phase with Chiunye and Melvin Mukiwa crashing their efforts against the crossbar inside a minute with 20 minutes still on the clock.
Then Silla’s moment of magic arrived.
“It’s always good to score on your debut. You know CAPS United is a very big team and it’s satisfying to score on your very first match,” said Silla. “We had a good game and I should admit that ZPC Kariba also played well. It could have gone either way but I am happy we won.”
Chitembwe, who made it clear last week that, he wanted his charges to play a possession-based game yesterday practiced exactly what he has been preaching.
And he was happy to see his charges over the line in a match where he felt ZPC Kariba also came to the party.
“It was a very difficult match today and ZPC Kariba gave everything. I am very impressed with the quality of football which was on display. “Both teams really wanted to play and I am extremely happy from that view point.
“I am satisfied with the result but I feel there is still some work which needs to be done,” said Chitembwe.
“I feel we still need to work on a lot of things offensively and defensively.
“There were a lot of things on that goal scored by Silla. “You look at the dribbles, there were a lot of good dribbles before he took the shot.
“You also look at the trajectory of the shot and the precision and I mean, what a great goal to win a great match.
“From that view point, I am very happy as the winning coach”.
His ZPC Kariba opposite number Dodo saluted Silla’s goal but felt his team was just unfortunate to end as the losing side.
“I think we gave a good account of ourselves. We played a very good team. We knew it was not going to be easy but I think we slept on duty especially on that goal that we conceded,” said Dodo.
“I think it was from a very difficult angle and position.”I thought our closing down was very poor, we gave the scorer a lot of space and he managed to score which was very unfortunate for us given the work we had put in.
“My boys have that belief. They are confident of themselves and after a sluggish first half, they really wanted it and we were getting into good spaces in the second half.
“Unfortunately lady luck wasn’t on our side maybe we could have buried one or two goals before CAPS United scored”.
Teams
CAPS United
Tonderai Mateyaunga, Godknows Murwira, Innocent Zambezi, Hastings Chapusha, Kelvin Madzongwe, Devon Chafa (Joel Ngodzo 79min), Blessing Sarupinda (Lincoln Mangaira 90min), Phineas Bamusi, Clive Rupiya (Adrian Silla 46min), Rodwell Chinyengetere, William Manondo (Ben Musaka 84min)
ZPC Kariba
Tapiwa Chilenga, Kuzivakwashe Mudima, Melvin Mukiwa, Forster Dhemere, Munyaradzi Diro-Nyenye, Boid Mutukure, Collen Muleya (Daniel Shoko 85min), Moses Demera (Everson Feremba 82min), Winston Mhango, Tinotenda Chiunye (Samuel Makawa 82min), Leeroy Murape (Tellmore Pio 85min)
Online Reporter