Vusumuzi Dube
Tadious Manyepo at Ngoni Stadium
MWOS 1-0 Scottland
THE sight of MWOS coach Lloyd Mutasa sprinting the whole length of the pitch at Ngoni Stadium in Norton after this marginal Premiership victory yesterday summarised the whole mood.
This was the ultimate battle between two newbies who have taken the Premier Soccer League by storm, in terms of both flamboyance and competition.
It was, by every measure, a thriller except that the goals did not rain on this lush-green turf, but emotions did.
In the end, man-of-the-moment Billy Veremu’s ninth goal of the season, squeezed midway through the second stanza settled it.
This was a tie between two sworn rivals from last year in the Northern Region Soccer League and it produced pretty much what was expected; drama and fireworks.
The 6 000-seater stadium was packed to the rafters with tickets having been sold out well before Friday, showing just how efficient the Premier Soccer League can be with stakeholder support.
First it was the players, Khama Billiat for Scottland and Nigel Matinha for the home side entertaining the crowd with their sleek play.
The first-half was lit but no goals were recorded with Scottland goalkeeper Nelson Chadya standing firm, keeping out Matinha, Arthur Banda and Tafadzwa George’s stinging efforts.
Scottland had their chances too but they were not that clinical.
Then came the drama, right in the 67th minute, referee Thabani Ruzario getting injured and lying on the turf for 12 good minutes while being attended to.
Fourth official Lloyd Mapanje took charge for the remainder of the game.
There was no significant error from either Ruzario or his replacement.
The match went on quite well and in the end it was Mutasa and his boys who celebrated a massive win which took their tally to 30 points in 14 undefeated outings.
“For a start, I would want to say, Glory be to God. I think we could not have done this without the Almighty and then winning against Scottland, I think it’s so sweet,” said Mutasa.
“At one occasion, I wanted to give up coaching football because of what transpired last year (in the Northern Region Soccer League) and I know this was a very massive game, and that was going to probably take away everything that we had had worked for from the first game to game number 13, had we lost this match in this community.
“And I’m very much pleased that at least for once, we have managed to make the people not only in Norton happy, but all over the country.
“I wouldn’t want to say much about our opponents, but I would want to say the desire, the hunger of wanting to come out victorious at our home ground, because I would want to believe that last time when we played, when we were in the NRSL, we gave them a helping hand for they took four points away from us.”
This was Scottland’s second defeat in 14 games, having first tasted defeat against Ngezi Platinum at Rufaro.
In hindsight, it could have been a different story altogether but a moment of sleep in the box let themselves down.
Veremu headed a corner towards Chadya’s goal but the latter sprung up and parried the ball away.
But Veremu beat the Scottland defence to the rebound which he bundled home.
“In the end, I thought probably with that kind of attitude, probably a point was going to be good for us, but it was coming,” said Tonderai Ndiraya the Scottland coach.
“We then had to concede, in the end, I think those are the reaction moments where the team needed to react in a very quick manner to defend that set piece, but that is the situation that we find ourselves difficult to take, but it has happened, and I would want to give credit to MWOS the way that they’ve gone about their business today. They wanted it more than us. They, I think, were in control of the game in most of the moments of the game. I think we then started to come out of our shell when we conceded which is very normal in football. When you are chasing the game, you tend to throw bodies forward and try and come back into the game.”
Teams
MWOS: Martin Mapisa, Tafadzwa Nyabunze, Valentine Katsande, Innocent Zambezi, Mathew Murambiwa (Abdulrahman Kassim 90min), Tinotenda Mutyambizi, Tafadzwa George (Jeremiah Makangira 87min), Malvern Mudzuka (Clive Kwangwari 76min), Billy Veremu (Salif Cheya 87min)Arthur Banda (Wilson Mensah 90min), Nigel Matinha
Scottland: Nelson Chadya, Godknows Murwira, Walter Musona, Peter Muduhwa, Ronald Pfumbidzai (Albert Manenji 76min), Khama Billiat, Nathan Mutasa (Panashe Mutimbanyoka 59min), Kingsley Mureremba(Sadney Urikhob 76min), Mthokozisi Msebe(Michael Tapera 76min), Frederick Botchway (Jaison Kudzai 87min)
Online Reporter