Tinaye Agere
Mabvuto Kambuwe in LILONGWE, Malawi
ZIMBABWEAN coach Kalisto Pasuwa has created an aura of invincibility in Malawian football for five consecutive years.
His impressive records speak for him.
Since he came to Malawi towards the end of the 2018 season, he turned the country’s top-flight league into a one-horse race with Nyasa Big Bullets and has won the TNM Super League title in every term.
Just last season, the trendsetting former Warriors coach wrote another piece of history when he won an unprecedented quadruple, becoming the first person to achieve the feat in a decade.
In 2023, Pasuwa bagged the TNM Super League title with 60 points from 30 matches, taking the Bullets championship title tally to a record 17 since the league was introduced in 1986. They also clinched the inaugural Castel Challenge Cup following a 4-3 victory over Silver Strikers at the Bingu National Stadium after a 1-1 stalemate in regulation time.
Bullets defended the FDH Bank Cup and won the Airtel Top 8 for the second time in three years. As if that is not all, the “People’s Team” won the NBS Bank Charity for a seventh consecutive year since it was introduced in 2016. Surely, it was an incredible season for the Zimbabwean and his Bullets.
Despite having a clean sweep, his side struggled with injuries, coupled with fatigue due to their participation in the CAF Champions League.
For the first time since 2016, Bullets progressed to the second preliminary round of the Champions League following a 3-0 victory on aggregate over Dragon FC from Equatorial Guinea. They were eventually eliminated in the second round, when they lost 5-0 in a two-legged affair to the Democratic Republic of Congo giants and five-time Champions League winners TP Mazembe. Fast forward to 2024 and Pasuwa’s men find themselves in an unfamiliar position on the log standings, having made their worst start to a season in six years.
They have won just four matches, registered eight draws and lost once.
More worryingly for their legion of fans, Pasuwa’s charges trail log leaders Silver, who are under the tutelage of Bullets legend and his apprentice, Peter Mponda.
Pasuwa admitted that his troops are a pale shadow of their former selves this season due to several factors, including injuries.
“It does not matter how we played, but the most important thing are the three points. Remember, we have been playing good football, but getting draws,” Pasuwa said after his side registered a 3-0 win over rookies Fomo at Kamuzu Stadium. This season, Bullets have been in turmoil on and off the pitch. Their players recently boycotted training. Instead, Central Bankers, as Silver are fondly known, have found their mojo under ex-Malawi international Mponda.
They are on course to end their 11-year wait for the TNM Super League title.
Interestingly, Pasuwa and Mponda sat together in the dugout at Bullets for three seasons, before the former Flames captain moved to South Africa to manage Motsepe Foundation side Black Leopards for one season in 2023. He returned home this year, signing a one-year performance-based contract with Silver, amid resistance from sections of the Bankers fans largely because he is a Bullets legend.
Mponda made an assurance to the Reserve Bank-sponsored side’s supporters that he was professional and was at Silver on serious business.
He vowed to end Bullets’ dominance in Malawian football.
“Being a legend does not bring food on my table, I have to work well. Indeed, I played for Bullets and I am a legend, but I am here to be a legend as Silver coach,” Mponda told the Malawian media after he replaced nomadic Dutchman Pieter de Jongh.
Given the rivalry that exists in football, few believed Mponda.
Four months after his unveiling in February, he has since turned into a darling at Lilongwe’s Area 47 club. When Mponda turned up against his former master Pasuwa in the 2024 NBS Bank Charity Shield, he lost 6-7 on penalties after a goalless stalemate at the Bingu National Stadium. His men then hurt Bullets where it matters most, when handing them their first home loss in three seasons in the league, via a 1-0 win, courtesy of Chinsinsi Maonga’s last-gasp goal. Before the defeat by Silver, Bullets had last lost at home by a similar margin to Wanderers in 2021.
The league programme is approaching the halfway mark. At this stage, Silver are the only unbeaten team in the league.
Since he took over from De Jongh, Mponda has also created an aura of invincibility.
Although it is early days, the storming start has left Silver being considered strong favourites to win it this season.
Online Reporter