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Zimbabwe’s football aristocrats, Dynamos, keep stumbling from one setback to another. From a divided dressing room – which has seen accusations of backstabbing being traded – to alleged player mutiny, results on the pitch have also frowned on the team.
Lurching from one controversy to another, this has left DeMbare battered and badly bruised both on and off the field and they seem to be plumbing to new lows at almost every turn.
Already, the frost relations in the technical team have turned sour, resulting in a fallout that has cost goalkeepers’ coach, Gift “Umbro” Muzadzi his job as there seem to be no end in sight to the problems currently bedevilling the country’s biggest football institution.
Something is terribly wrong somewhere, somehow at the club.
There is fire in the kitchen and if somebody does not put it out as a matter of urgency, then it threatens to raze the whole house.
The latest incident in which Farai Mupasiri allegedly smuggled a woman into a shared apartment with Walter Mukanga while camped in Bulawayo on the eve of the team’s 2-0 Independence Cup Third and Fourth Playoff defeat to FC Platinum was the latest episode in the growing chapters of what has so far been a scandal-stained season for Dynamos.
Prior to that, in the same competition’s semi-finals losing cause against eventual winners Chicken Inn, the team’s Portuguese coach, Jorge Paulo Silva, had complained about the attitude of his players. He accused them of letting the team down and even insinuated that some of them feigned injuries in order to be left out of the squad or force to be substituted off.
While player indiscipline may be swept under the carpet, it is the results from games and performances on the pitch that have not been palatable with many a club faithful and have, therefore, found very difficult to stomach.
Since Jorge Paulo Silva took charge, good results have remained as elusive as have the team’s performances been pathetic. And there has virtually been nothing encouraging about the team’s seemingly faltering campaign. A cursory glance at results posted under the guidance of the Portuguese tactician will leave those whose hearts are painted blue shuddering. In a dozen matches, Dynamos have won only twice (4-0 Whawha; 2-0 Kabwe Warriors), drawn five times (0-0 Flame Lilly; 0-0 Mutoko Traders; 0-0 Nyasa Big Bullets; 2-2 Border Strikers; 0-0 Triangle) and suffered as many losses (0-1 ZPC Kariba; 0-1 Nyasa Big Bullets; 0-3 Chicken Inn; 0-1 Chicken Inn; 0-2 FC Platinum).
What is worryingly alarming is how the team has been so barren in front of goal and fired blanks – scoring in only three, which is 25 percent of the matches played so far – that it appears even the coach is also bereft of ideas on how to stem the slide.
With the rate at which the once mighty DeMbare are losing their glamour, it would not come as much of a surprise if they fail to win against whipping newboys and punching bag Mutare City Rovers in this weekend’s league fixture at Sakubva.
Silva has been the common denominator in most of the problems that continue to stalk the popular Harare club and in all this “madness”, he is absolutely right about one thing, though: “Someone has to make a firm decision. . . This can not go on forever, Dynamos is a big team,” he was quoted by The Sunday Mail as telling ZBV TV following their Uhuru Cup semis loss to the Gamecocks.
Indeed, someone has to own up to the problems and another clean up the mess.
Here is a little advice for Silva from Yours Truly: yes, patience pains, but it also pays; you certainly need a bit of time, Mr Jorge Paulo, to immerse yourself in the way things are done at Dynamos and also get to know your players better as well.
The only problem, however, is whether Silva will have “enough” of that time before the blue train completely goes off the rail.
Chicken Inn draw first blood
The Gamecocks appear to have carried last season’s championship-winning tilt into this campaign. Already boasting a 100 percent record to their title defence in the league, Joey Antipas’ men have won this term’s first silverware after accounting for traditional giants Dynamos and cross-town rivals Highlanders in the Independence Cup.
Their coach, the modest Mafero, is certainly a man on a mission and the gathered momentum will certainly boost their confidence as they continue with their charge towards a fruitful campaign.
That’s not the method, Mwanjali
Fresh from an embarrassing incident in which he pulled down his shorts in protest against a referee’s decision during his team’s off-season preparatory match in neighbouring Mozambique, CAPS United captain, Method Mwanjali, was at it again when he allegedly stabbed another man following an altercation, which is alleged to have involved a woman, at a night club in Harare.
The confrontation was as unfortunate as it was regrettable for Mwanjali, whose co-accused is club mate Archiford Gutu, to have been involved in the bar brawl in the first place.
Yes, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but for Yellow, a former Warriors and Mamelodi Sundowns captain, there is no running away from the court of public opinion and the jury is already out to try him, even as the case is yet to be determined by the court of law, before which it has now been brought.
Whatever the circumstances and even if his act was retaliation following provocation – well, as a player he certainly should know better from game situations that such offences get cautioned or punished – or was in self defence, that was not the method for Mwanjali to use and he was clearly offside on that.
Gamachanger feels that as public figures, these “celebrities” must lead an extremely exemplary life.
The Klopp effect on Liverpool
With barely half-a-year in the job, German coach Jurgen Klopp’s effect is already permeating Anfield and being fervently felt as he has been a huge factor in the Merseyside giants’ recent upturn in both form and results. Only last Thursday, the 2005 European champions roared from a two-goal deficit in stunning fashion to edge pre-tournament favourites Borussia Dortmund in a thriller that was peppered with an Istanbul-like performance, which saw nostalgic memories of the Reds’ spectacular European nights flooding back.
And the catalyst has been none other than Klopp, whose passion of the game, punctuated by animated antics, sometimes consumes him on the touchline.
Also, several players in the squad, who had hitherto looked hopeless misses of signings, have stepped up to the plate and look like they are enjoying their game.
Croatia defender Dejan Lovren has been a revelation, with sturdy displays in defence and his added-time winner against BVB is perhaps his best performance since swapping the red shirt of Southampton for Liverpool’s. Brazilian ace Roberto Firmino, who had a difficult start to life at Liverpool after signing from Hoffenheim, has also been effective as a false nine or just behind the gunman, averaging a goal/assist every 107 minutes this season – better than Mesut Ozil (113), Kevin de Bruyne (116), Riyad Mahrez (118) and Dimtri Payet (131). England striker Daniel Sturridge, easily given to going under the knife, is also improving and shaking off the ever-lingering injury threat. He has averaged a goal every 112 minutes in the Premier League so far this season and in all of last weekend’s fixtures, no player in the league had more shots (10) than he did against Bournemouth; scoring one, assisting the other, hitting the woodwork twice and looked menacing as he started his fourth straight league match for the first time in two years.
It’s Game On, Play On!
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Online Reporter