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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
DYNAMOS coach Callisto Pasuwa has hit back at his Triangle counterpart Biggie Zuze and branded him a bad loser after the Sugar Sugar Boys gaffer suggested that the Harare giants are being aided by biased officiating in order to win their matches.
The champions came from behind to edge Triangle 2-1 at Gibbo on Sunday with centre-back Augustine Mbara’s 56th minute penalty cancelling Praise Tonha’s 30th minute strike before Washington Pakamisa rose from the bench to fire home the winner in the 69th minute.
It was, however, the penalty decision which helped Dynamos to draw level, which left Zuze livid and the Triangle coach not only blamed Kwekwe referee Thabani Bamala and his assistants for the defeat but also scoffed at DeMbare’s success in the Premiership.
“Coaching Dynamos, I think it’s one of the easiest tasks in this country because you have many sympathisers and you tend to get favourable decisions.
“If they win the title they would have got it from nothing. They were given a penalty and that was not a penalty at all and look we could have been given a penalty in the second half and they did not give us.
“Our football will be destroyed with this kind of officiating. I am not happy with the way this match was handled and I believe something must be done.
“Such things happen each and every year and that’s why Dynamos fail to make the grade when they get to compete against other giants in Africa,” Zuze said.
But Zuze’s remarks that insinuated that Dynamos were only winning out of the benevolence of match officials and “many other sympathisers” did not go down well with Pasuwa.
“It is not in my habit to attack fellow coaches or just simply cry foul whenever Dynamos lose whether it is in the domestic league, the Caf Champions League or the Caf Confederation Cup.
“I accept defeat when I have been genuinely beaten and complain when I feel the playing field is uneven.
“I must say I was rather taken aback and saddened by comments being attributed to my brother Biggie Zuze who is a coach of Triangle suggesting that we never deserved the 2-1 win we got when we played them at Gibbo Stadium on Sunday.
“Biggie’s complaint seemed to be centred on the penalty that was awarded to Dynamos from which our defender Augustine Mbara converted to make it 1-1.
“With all due respect to Biggie and other like-minded coaches who do not appear to concede defeat whenever they lose and instead choose to find something to blame, I would like to make it clear that Dynamos have not been winning the league championship because of the club’s history and size or reputation but because of the hard work that the management, coaches and players put week in and week out.
“I must say it has not been easy hence we have won some of the league titles on the last day of the season,’’ Pasuwa said.
The Dynamos coach also said he had been angered by Zuze’s suggestions that the Glamour Boys were struggling in Africa largely because they were helped to win titles at home.
“It is cheap politicking to try and suggest that Dynamos has been struggling in African competitions because they would not have been deserved winners of the league title at home when it is clear the two competitions are different in many ways and there are many different factors between a win over Triangle and a defeat by AS Vita of Congo.
“Those different factors have nothing to do with local referees or referees from the rest of Africa and anyone who cares to watch a video clip of our match against Triangle on Sunday will be able to see that although we did not play well in some parts of the game we took our chances and I think we deserved the three points that we got and we will not let the blame game from losing coaches distract us from the mission to try and win another league title this year.
“We know that every team wants to beat Dynamos and every game that we play is like a cup final and because every opponent would want to have the record of beating us there is never an easy game for us whether friendly or competitive so one cannot suggest that it is an easy task to coach this club, actually there is more pressure in coaching Dynamos than Triangle,’’ Pasuwa said.
Dynamos managed to hang onto pole position with 39 points, just a point ahead of old enemies Highlanders and ZPC Kariba and two ahead of bitter city rivals CAPS United who all also won over the weekend.
Online Reporter