NGEZI HAVE THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Tadious Manyepo-Zimpapers Sport

NGEZI Platinum Stars do not have a substitute goalkeeper.

They have two first-choice players in that post but for two different competitions – the Premier Soccer League and Chibuku Super Cup.

And they are both unrivalled in their terrains.

Nelson Chadya takes care of the league matches where he has set and broken records while Chang Marion does the work in the Chibuku Super Cup.

Chadya has kept the most number of clean sheets in the league (36) in the past two seasons.

Chadya has also saved two penalties so far, first putting out Melikhaya Ncube’s effort in Ngezi Platinum’s 1-0 win at Highlanders.

He then denied Hwange’s Dominic Chungwa from dragging Chipangano back into the game in a 6-0 mauling in Mhondoro.

“I am absolutely happy with my performance and I owe it to my teammates and the technical team led by Takesure Chiragwi,” said Chadya.

“Look, without the support from my teammates who should also get credit, I wouldn’t be here,” said Chadya.

“I am very happy and I hope to keep on working very hard to continue keeping those clean sheets.

“We were the league champions last year and we hope to finish strongly this term.”

Marion carried Ngezi Platinum to the Chibuku Super Cup quarter-finals in 2022 before taking them to the finals last year where they were then beaten by Dynamos.

He has built a huge profile for making crucial saves, including in penalty shootouts, in this tournament.

“I am very happy to have contributed significantly to my team’s progress in the Chibuku Super Cup. I should say I have always been good at saving penalties since my schooldays,” he said.

“I still remember at the 2009 National Youth Games, we won gold after I saved two penalties in the final and in 2010 it was the same after I saved three in the final as well.

“I have grown a lot in terms of confidence. I just tell myself that I can save two from the five and I do exactly that. I can also take penalties, I still remember when I was at Tsholotsho in 2017, I actually scored four penalties.

“I hope we will win the Chibuku Super Cup and return to Africa next year.”