Mapeza hails his gallant troops

Mbachi Mutukula-Maregere Sports Reporter
NORMAN Mapeza has hailed his gallant troops for their never-say-die spirit, inspired by a relentless pursuit of silverware, which helped them rise from the dead and win the Chibuku Super Cup at Mandava on Sunday. FC Platinum were on the ropes, for the majority of the game, and appeared headed for defeat, after a plucky Harare City led for long periods of this contest, only for the hosts to strike in the dying stages and grab a lifeline.

Mapeza, in his first big final since standing on the podium to receive the winners’ medals having led modest Monomotapa to the league championship in 2008, was starring defeat, in his backyard, with the headlines seemingly having been stolen by Masimba Dinyero and his hardworking players.

The four minutes of time added on had elapsed, when FC Platinum, trailing 0-1 to a goal by Talent Chawapihwa, were awarded a free-kick by controversial referee Norman Matemera in an attack that should have ended when one of their players strayed into an off-side position.

That could have ended the contest, if Matemera had either spotted, or possibly not ignored, his assistant referee, who had his flag up for the off-side call, in the final attack by the home team that produced the free-kick.

FC Platinum scored from that resultant free-kick with Harare City claiming that the ball did not cross the line, during the goalmouth scramble.
Francis Nyamutsamba, a ZBC journalist who covered the match and who had the benefit of watching replays of the incident of the recorded footage, said the ball crossed the line and Matemera was right to award the goal.

However, the footage of the incident, shown by ZBC yesterday during the main news, was not conclusive and, in fact, added to the confusion.
The one-angle camera footage could not conclusively prove that the ball crossed the line.

Mapeza said their hard-fought victory, which came via the penalty shootout lottery, was a triumph for his men who refused to embrace defeat.
“Achieving something, which people think is unachievable, means a lot,” Mapeza said in reference to the way his men rallied from their difficult position on Sunday.
“It shows that a person, or a team, put in a lot of hard work.

“For me, as a coach, winning this Cup was a very huge achievement, it means a lot to me. I encouraged the players to train hard, if we wanted to win, and they did just that.
“And we did it, we won the Chibuku Cup, what a huge achievement for me, as a coach, and I am happy that my boys won.”

Mapeza said his men will now shift their focus on completing their league programme in style when they host FC Chiredzi at Mandava this weekend.
They could even finish third, should they win on Sunday, and CAPS United fall at the hands of ZPC Kariba.

“I am going to meet all our players tomorrow (today) so that we start our preparations for our last league game,” said Mapeza
“It is too early to think about Mbanda Cup, at the moment, we need to shift our focus to our last league match against Chiredzi.”