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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
MASIMBA Mambare came into the Mbada Diamonds Cup final with a lot of questions hanging over his commitment to Highlanders and, crucially, his future at the club after a tumultuous week in which his allegiance to the club became a big talking point on social media sites.
His appearance at Barbourfields, in the final league match against Shabanie, had ended on a sour note with the forward, who was Bosso’s starman lasts season before a stunning loss of form this year complicated his relationship with some of the supporters, having been booed in a game Highlanders won 3-1.
His coach Kelvin Kaindu was forced to leap to his defence, when it became increasingly clear that Mambare had lost the support of fans with the bond they shared having been snapped by his poor form and questions about his future at the club, with the Zambian saying the forward deserved a little bit of respect.
Mambare also used his Facebook page, which he claimed he had abandoned for about two years, to tell the Bosso fans that those who were questioning his future, and claiming that he was abandoning the team for Dynamos, were not saying the truth and were complicating his relationship with supporters, already strained by his poor form.
To his credit, Mambare also conceded in his statement that his performances this season had not risen to expectations, something that he says can happen to any professional footballer, and he was committed to scaling the heights he touched last year.
Interestingly, despite all these distractions, Kaindu bravely threw Mambare into the starting XI on Saturday, in another massive vote of confidence in his forward, and what followed was a script that had been written in heaven.
To say that Mambare was outstanding on Saturday, against the background of the huge weight that was on his shoulders, would be an understatement.
That he was jittery at the beginning, was probably expected given the circumstances, but once he found his range, he thrived on the right side of the attack and became the man that Bosso turned to every time they were going forward.
It wasn’t a coincidence that all the three goals that Bosso scored on Saturday were all manufactured down the right channel, where Mambare was pulling the strings, and he scored one himself, the third goal, whose beauty was hidden in its simplicity.
Five minutes into the second half, Bosso ended the match as a contest when Mambare appeared to pull himself from an offside position, just at the right time, as How Mine struggled, as they did all afternoon, to clear the ball.
Having gained possession, Mambare was an oasis of composure as he picked his spot and saw that he could squeeze the ball, through a very small window that ‘keeper Mazarura had left open on the right side of his post, with the Bosso forward stroking the ball home.
It appeared a simple goal but it was wrapped in genius and just as well Mambare scored it, after all that he had endured in the week, to show those who doubted him that he was committed to the cause of the team.
“For me, Mambare was the man-of-the-match,” Mduduzi Mathuthu, the Editor of Chronicle, said after the match.
The journalists who voted for the man-of-the-match award gave it to midfielder Peter “Rio” Moyo who, on the balance of contributions, provided did slightly more than Mambare.
But why Mambare’s story was beautiful was because it was written in a pressure environment where a poor show would have ignited the fire in the bellies of the boo-boys and backfired terribly on Kaindu, for his bravery to give him a place in the starting XI, and also on the player given that it would have fed the conspiracy that he wants out of the team.
To their credit, the Highlanders fans appeared ready to support their man and this was evident when, after he had found acres of space down the right channel where Khumbulani Banda was the Achilles Heel in his team’s rearguard, he found himself with a clear sight on goal.
He charged towards goal, every step increasing the level of expectation among the fans, but when he opened the trigger, his shot went horribly wide.
Had that happened last Sunday, when his relationship with the fans had reached breaking point, it’s very likely that the response from Soweto would have been a shower of abuse, boos that would ring so loudly they would be heard in the city centre and it would have been very hard for Mambare to come back.
But this was a different occasion and Mambare, having announced his commitment to the team via Facebook with his message being published by newspapers in Bulawayo, was not the right fellow to boo on Saturday.
Feeling that he was being loved, Mambare thrived on the big stage, and he was a joy to watch, every time he was in possession and did more than his shift, on the day, as Bosso ran away as comfortable winners on the day.
Of course, no one knows what would have happened if How Mine had turned on the power and silenced the crowd, pushing Bosso on the back foot, and Mambare skied that good chance with his team down and looking for salvation.
It’s likely that some of the boo boys would have returned to haunt him, irrespective of his public display of affection for this team and its cause, and the wounds would have been opened again, the cracks widened and Kaindu’s bravery would have been slammed.
But they say form is temporary and that Mambare had lost his touch was clear but Kaindu always believed that his forward has class, and that’s permanent.
He backed him to silence his critics, and there is no better way of doing that then playing well and scoring in a big game, and Mambare did all that with a superb display that brought back memories of his vintage season last year when he was, at his best, virtually unplayable.
Fans want to see their star players shining, especially on the big stage, and Mambare knows that his performance on Saturday won’t buy him unconditional support from Soweto, is he decides to stay at the club next season, because it doesn’t work that way in this brutal game.
He has to keep playing well, and earning his stripes, the way he did on Saturday.
If this was goodbye, because you never know in this game, then noone will ever accuse him that he deliberately under-performed because he didn’t subscribe to the Bosso cause.
Online Reporter