adminRay Bande Senior Sports Reporter
TEAM Manicaland turned on the heat to retain their National Association of Primary Heads soccer title and went on to make the biggest contribution to the team that will represent the country in the regional Confederation of Southern Africa Schools Association (COSASA) Games. Provincial teams from the country’s 10 regions converged in Bulawayo last week for the NAPH ball games finals and Manicaland emerged victorious in football after outplaying Mashonaland West in a nail biting final that was eventually decided by a penalty shootout.
Four players from Manicaland — goalkeeper, Lucky Sibanda, Prince Vutuza, free scoring striker, Eli Kalombo and Zamba Primary’s Brian Zvakare — are part of the team that will go into camp on August 15 in Bulawayo ahead of the COSASA Games to be held in the City of Kings.
Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi will field participants in this year’s edition of the COSASA Games.
Unlike most soccer competitions at secondary school level that leave a particular school to go all the way to the national finals after winning the provincial finals, NAPH soccer competition allows for the selection of a strong provincial squad with players from different schools making up Team Manicaland.
However, it is Team Manicaland’s sterling display that earned the respect and admiration of many as the team powered to a successive title defence away from home.
During the group stages, Team Manicaland held the hosts, Bulawayo, to a one-all stalemate, with tournament top goal scorer, Kalombo on target for the visitors, before Kevin Sithole scored for Manicaland in their 1-0 win over Midlands in the second match.
The third encounter saw Kalombo’s brace and a goal each by teammates, Brian Zvakare and Ngobizitha Sikombingo condemning Matebeleland South to a humiliating 4-1 defeat.
In their final match of the group stages, Manicaland beat Masvingo by a slender 1-0 margin to finish with 10 points at the top of their group, while Masvingo came second in that group.
Manicaland went on to stage a smash and grab raid in the semi-finals where they edged Mashonaland East by a solitary goal, thanks to Kevin Sithole’s free kick that became the only goal of the match.
In the other semi-final, Mashonaland West got the better of Masvingo with a 2-0 margin thereby setting the stage for a Manicaland/Mashonaland West final.
NAPH national head-in-charge of football, Masimba Chihowa, who is also the NAPH head-in-charge of the game at provincial level, was happy with the performance of Manicaland.
“As Manicaland I am happy that we did well. I am happy that we managed to assemble a competitive outfit. In this year’s team, we had two players from the 2014 title winners who were in Grade Six last year.
“All the others were new. The presence of the two from last year added depth and experience.
“We also had two new coaches in Muzanenhamo from Chipinge and Tsinakwadi from Chimanimani. One thing that really helped us sail through was thorough preparations.
“We had a camp in Chipinge where local academies gave us good and competitive training until we went to Bulawayo. It was team effort that was also made possible by the remarkable input of the NAPH leadership at provincial level led by Kuzuwazuwa,” said Chihowa.
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