Online Reporter
Mugove Chigada
Deputy Sports Editor
JUST after Simba Bhora’s last training session on Friday, an ecstatic Joel Luphahla gets on the road for a 630km drive to Francistown, Botswana for the “clash of legends”.
As he traded tactics for tales of old, Luphahla could afford a prolonged smile, away from the pressure cooker, the Castle Lager Premiership.
Faces like that of Peter Ndlovu and Dumisani Mpofu transported him down memory lane. But this nostalgia is short-lived.
That very Saturday night, Luphahla is on the road again back to Harare, in time for the Yadah showdown.
He arrives in camp Sunday 3am and in a display of unbridled dedication, by 7am he is up ready to meet his players.
“The most important thing for me was for the players to wake-up and see my face. It’s important for players to see their coach is around on match day. It was hectic, but I had to be there in time,” Luphahla told Zimpapers Sports Hub in an exclusive interview.
The two-hour nap, Luphahla said, was good enough for him to face the challenge.
And when the referee ended the match at the Heart Stadium on Sunday, after Blessing “Bisto” Moyo’s great free-kick had decided the game, it was a big result.
“The boys did well, they played for me,” he said. That result meant Simba Bhora have made their intention clear in their bid to retain the title.
And 35 points collected mid-way the season is a good tally to build on.
For the record, Simba Bhora are five points better than they were last season under Tonderai Ndiraya, a season they went on to win the title after collecting a total of 66 points.
If Luphahla’s Simba can replicate that second-half 70 percent success rate, or better, they could just make history.
“It will not be easy. It will need us to go for something like 12 unbeaten matches. It just shows that what Simba did last season was mission impossible.
“Remember we will be facing teams like Triangle, TelOne, MWOS and Ngezi Platinum. Those are very difficult teams. And at this stage, you can’t rule out Scottland as well,” Luphahla said.
For Simba Bhora to retain the title, they must, however, be able to improve on that tally in a big way, given there are teams that collected such points at this stage but still failed to win the title at the end of the season. FC Platinum, who lost the plot last season after managing 35 points at this stage, should be a reminder to Simba Bhora that they can still lose the title race if there is no solid show in the second half.
After collecting 35 points and, ironically, topping the log after 17 games, Norman Mapeza’s side went on to collect just 31 points in the second half — a 60 percent success rate that only gave them a runner’s up position.
At 37 points after 17 games in 2023, giants Highlanders failed to hold on to the lead, allowing Takesure Chiragwi’s Ngezi Platinum, who had 30 points at this stage and were second on the log, to come back and win the title with 66 points.
Even in 2021/22 season, Chicken Inn couldn’t hold on to their first half of the season with 35 points as they allowed an FC Platinum comeback that gave Mapeza another title after finishing the season on a massive 75 points.
Luphahla will be wise enough to know all that. Such is the nature of second-half action that the last team to lead the log mid-way the season and go on to lift the title was FC Platinum in 2018. They had a massive 44 points, nine points better than Simba Bhora now, and they ended the season with 78 points. Luphahla will be banking on their good results on the road. Most recently they got the better of Highlanders (2-3) and Yadah on Sunday, the 1-0 win.
“That’s perhaps one of the areas we have done well so far as a team. It’s never easy to pick up points away from home.
“You look at the game against Yadah. When you see how they played against Dynamos and how they then applied themselves against us, you see that there are no easy games in the league,” said Luphahla.
