Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
HARARE soccer giants, Dynamos will make their third Premiership trip of the season to Bulawayo this weekend to face championship-chasing Chicken Inn, in a match that DeMbare is hard-pressed for victory to get their fading title hopes back on track.
Dynamos travel to Bulawayo on the backdrop of a four-match winless run that has also seen them failing to find the back of the net.
Having started the season brightly, Dynamos seem to have lost their mojo and they find themselves eight points adrift of leaders FC Platinum, who are on 44 points after 21 games.
Just four games ago, Dynamos, who are third on the table, were a point behind the defending champions. An indifferent run of two identical 0-0 home draws against Triangle United and FC Platinum, as well as 1-0 score-line defeats to Yadah and Cranborne Bullets have seen DeMbare slowly losing ground in the title race.
Dynamos’ last win was on June 5 when they clobbered their arch-rivals Caps United 3-0. Issah Sadiki, Ralph Kawondera and Frank Makarati were on target for DeMbare.
Now goals have dried for Dynamos and heading to Bulawayo, they face a Chicken Inn side that bounced back to winning ways having lost two consecutive games 3-0 to FC Platinum and 1-0 to Tenax CS FC. The Gamecocks beat Bulawayo Chiefs 3-1 at the weekend to reduce FC Platinum’s lead to three points.
Dynamos’ coach Tonderai Ndiraya, who desperately needs his strikers to get their scoring boots on, is supercharged heading to Chicken Inn match as he believes that the 0-0 draw against FC Platinum was a recovery they needed.
“From our end and if you consider where we are coming from, we really wanted to recover.
How we would recover, we would not mind if you ask me.
And we’ve recovered, that’s what’s important with us because from our end, there were lots of nerves.
You can’t really be yourself especially when you’re playing under pressure.
You need a lot of courage from all the players to be able to really play the football that you want.
“In my opinion, the fact that we matched a team that is good has also put us at another level.
It showed we are not a bad side despite going through some difficulties; we can match the champions and we are really happy about that.
But I continue to bemoan the missed chances that we created,” said Ndiraya.
In their first visit to Bulawayo in the 2021/22 Premiership season, Dynamos beat Bulawayo Chiefs 2-0.
They returned to face Highlanders in a match that was marred by ugly scenes of hooliganism as DeMbare fans uprooted a goalpost and threw missiles after Highlanders had scored.
The match had to be called off with the score-line 1-0 and Bosso were awarded three points on a 3-0 score-line at a later date.
In that match, Dynamos teenage sensation Bill Antonio (pictured) was sent off for a horrible tackle on Highlanders’ defender Andrew Tandi.
Antonio will be hoping to make headlines for the right reasons this time around.
Now Dynamos, who have registered just two wins in seven out of Harare matches — beating Whawha 2-1 and Chiefs 2-0 — will be seeking their third win outside the capital.
This season, they drew against FC Platinum and Ngezi Platinum Stars 0-0 away, lost 1-0 to Cranborne Bullets, Highlanders and Triangle United.
Dynamos lost the first leg to Chicken Inn 1-0 in Harare and they are aware that a defeat in Bulawayo this weekend will see their championship hopes slipping further away.
Chicken Inn coach Joey Antipas wants his team to build on Chiefs’ victory.
“It’s good that we won and now that we’ve managed to collect maximum points, it should get our confidence levels up.
“The championship race is a marathon like I have said and what is important is to try keep winning and control what we can,” Antipas said. — @ZililoR
Online Reporter