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Veronica Gwaze, Sports Reporter
IT appears to be an eventful season for Northern Region Women Soccer League with a total of 129 goals already scored, marking the highest scored season by half way break.
League newbies, Ngezi Platinum Queens are the eight-team-league top scorers having found the back of the net 39 times, while Star Queens are bottom with a paltry two goals to their name.
Ngezi’s Clementine Mavenge is the league’s top goal scorer with 14 goals, while her teammate Patience Nkomo follows closely with 10.
On third place is Black Rhinos Queens’ Polite Mabvengwa, who has been on target six times with Dynamos’ Ndoro Otilia, Chipo Nhawu of Ngezi Platinum Queens and Munashe Kazondo, who turns out for Black Rhinos sit joint on number four with five goals each.
NRWSL administrator Orphah Ruzvidzo is pleased with the progress shown by the teams as they have shown determination to fulfil most of their fixtures despite acute financial constraints.
“We are happy with how things have gone so far. Most of our teams have serious financial challenges to an extent that sometimes we have to be lenient in our programmes,” he said.
“You can see the efforts and sacrifices that the teams are putting into all this and how they strive to elevate the lives of girls.
“The number of goals netted so far speaks volumes about the calibre of teams and players that we have . . . there is even more room for improvement.
“Generally, the league has been a success so far with exciting games and a competitive spirit that has kept fans on the edge of their seats.”
Currently, Black Rhinos juniors are log leaders with 21 points, while Ngezi sit on second position with 18 in seven outings and a game in hand each.
Dynamos and Harare City juniors occupy the third and fourth positions with 16 and 10 points respectively.
With Black Rhinos’ senior team already playing in the topflight league, their juniors only serve as a feeder channel hence Ngezi appear to be promotion favourites if they maintain their position until the end of season.
“We look forward to seeing how the rest of the season unfolds and which team will ultimately emerge victorious as the league champions and promotion candidates,” said Ruzvidzo.
“There are loads of talented girls even around communities but financial challenges are becoming a huge impediment for clubs to be function . . .we wish for corporates to consider investing in girls’ teams.
“Conversely, this has resulted in the league failing to raise enough money from affiliation fees because some of the teams are being funded by individuals.
“We are also faced with challenges of infrastructure such as ground for teams to train and use as home grounds, lack of training equipment.
“We are already making efforts to find sponsors especially for the coming season, we need more teams so that we are able to rescue more girls from society ills and vices.”
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