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The Zimbabwe champions held on for the first 45 minutes against Club Athletic Bizertin, at the October 15 Stadium in Bizerte, but collapsed in the second half to lose 0-3 and will now need something special, in their backyard, to remain alive in the competition.
DeMbare have been poor on the road, in the past three campaigns in which they have failed to reach the group stages of the tournament, and when you lose to a team like Lesotho Correctional Services, you should expect worse in North Africa.
There has been a pattern to the defeats since DeMbare turned to their young turks — Lloyd Mutasa and Callisto Pasuwa — to steer their ship in a significant shift in policy given that this is a team that has, for long, been coached by experienced local hands.
While the young turks have done commendably well on the domestic front, with Pasuwa conquering all before him by winning the League and Cup double twice, it’s been a different story on the continent where they have been exposed.
Mutasa was in charge, two years ago, when DeMbare blew a 4-1 first leg win, against MC Alger, when they lost 0-3 in Algiers, to crash out on the away goals rule.
It was a bad defeat, the pain worsened by the controversial officiating that saw Guthrie Zhokinyi and Archford Gutu being sent off, but even when they took the game to time added on, with the aggregate in their advantage, DeMbare couldn’t hold on.
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Last year, the Glamour Boys were humiliated 0-6 by Esperance in Tunis, their worst defeat on the continent in more than three decades, and there was no way back in the second leg in Harare.
On Sunday, CA Bizertin blew apart DeMbare in a 3-0 victory with all the goals coming a dreadful second half for the Zimbabwe champions.
In the game against MC Alger, DeMbare held on until the 43rd minute, when they conceded the first goal before leaking two more, after the interval, to fall by the wayside.
Against Esperance, they were already 0-3 down in the first half, and conceded three more after the break while, on Sunday, they let in three goals in the second period of the match. This means Dynamos have conceded eight goals, in the second half, in three games in the Champions League against teams from Tunisia and Algeria in three editions of this tournament.
In contrast, in the first half, they have conceded five, and three came against Esperance.
Clearly, tactically, they are being overrun and maybe they are paying the price of going there to try and limit the damage, rather than take their opponents head-on and see where their industry and adventure takes them.
It’s difficult to lay the blame on the coaches, especially with the huge turnover of playing staff at the end of every year, and while Dynamos have struggled for a reliable forward this year, Takesure Chinyama already has five goals in just two games for Orlando Pirates.
So where are we getting it wrong?
As the domestic football fraternity continued to have a post-mortem of what could have gone wrong in Tunisia, local coaches believe the Harare giants can still spring a surprise and snatch a victory at Rufaro in two weeks time.
Veteran coach, Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe, feels that the set-up at the club, which has seen the team losing their key players at the end of every season, is to blame for the team’s sudden failure to stand up and be counted on the continent.
“I think Callisto (Pasuwa) is doing a good job but it is unfortunate that the set-up at the club, where every year when getting into continental safari they won’t have the key players, doesn’t help him much,” said Jongwe.
“It is like he is rebuilding every year and, for the local league, it is okay but on the continent it becomes difficult and worse still the local league would still be off-season when these games start.
“If anything, the people in charge should help him retain the good players at the end of the season because if you look at the previous squads which did well, like that team which had players such as Marere (Benjamin), Majabvi (Justice) and Sadomba (Edward), they had been together for more than one season. There should be continuity and right now there are new players who may excel and might win the league again this year and two or three players are likely to move again and the same problems will start again.
“Match fitness must also have contributed and in as much as they have been preparing since January, there is no substitute for match fitness and more so players such as Russy (Madamombe), Francesco (Zekumbawira) and Morris (Kadzola) are just playing together for the first time.”
However, Jongwe, who is the Mighty Warriors’ technical adviser, said all hope was not lost out and backed DeMbare to stage a comeback when CA Bizertin come to Harare for the return leg.
“We just hope they will turn the tables, it looks a heavy loss but from what he said about the team maybe they will launch a comeback,” said Jongwe.
Highlanders coach, Kevin Kaindu, said he had a lot of respect for Pasuwa and was confident he could turn the tide here.
“It is unfortunate they lost, l was listening to the radio commentary in the first half,” said Kaindu.
The match was broadcast live on Star FM.
“I have respect for their coach and they didn’t concede a goal in the first half and maybe they will turn the tables.
“Every team playing in these competitions should do well but they can come back, I have respect for Pasuwa he is a good coach.”
Monomotapa coach, Biggie Zuze, said the result came as a shock as there was a real sense of anticipation that DeMbare would do well this season.
“We were shocked, we had high hopes for the team but that is part of the game. The only thing is to regroup and maybe they have seen their shortcomings,” said the former DeMbare midfielder.
“In football anything can happen, and they should put the setback behind them and focus on the next game, they now know how the team plays and it would be easy for them to plan ahead.
“If these North African teams can win 3-0 at home why can’t we do the same here?”
The coach said lack of resources was also contributing to the poor showing by the local clubs. “We must also pull our resources and have more teams competing in these tournaments, and talking of lack of resources, this is why teams are losing players and DeMbare has been hit the hardest,” said Zuze.
Harare City mentor Bigboy Mawiwi said the departure of players — Denver Mukamba, Simba Sithole and Rodreck Mutuma — did not contribute to the heavy defeat.
“Anyone who plays for Dynamos should be up there and ready to deliver.
“So the moving in and out of players shouldn’t really affect a team,” said Mawiwi.
Online Reporter