Southern Region teams shine in PSL Week One

BULAWAYO Chiefs were the only Southern Region-based Castle Lager Premier Soccer League side to falter in the opening weekend of 2024 action.

The much anticipated 2024 PSL action kicked off on Saturday, in a weekend that Highlanders and Dynamos, in a rare fixture, headlined activity for the first time in years.

The match saw Highlanders’ Zambian gaffer, Kelvin Kaindu exorcising the ghost that has always troubled him, when he led Bosso to a hard-earned 2-1 victory over Dynamos.

He had never beaten Dynamos since 2012.

Kaindu, a former Highlanders player, first took charge of Bosso in 2012, before he went to see his chargers play second fiddle to the Glamour Boys up to 2014 when he left the club.

Kaindu has returned to Bosso, where he has Try Ncube and Agent Sawu, as his first and second assistants respectively.

“The great thing is, we managed to start with a victory. It’s a slight improvement. We managed to score two goals and fought for a win against Dynamos. It’s just unfortunate that in the second half, we played too much in our own half. I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but maybe people were saying I can’t beat them but I have an answer after this game. However, there was so much technical discipline and we are looking forward to our next game,” said Kaindu.

Bosso are set to take on their City of Kings and Queens rivals Bulawayo Chiefs in their Match Day Two fixture that is also expected to draw a big crowd.

Bulawayo Chiefs had an indifferent start to this year’s season, after they went down to Greenfuel at Greenfuel Arena.

Hwange had a great start, edging visiting Yadah Stars 1-0 deep in the bowels of the Colliery Stadium ,where their returnee, Gift Mbweti stole the show, to give Chipangano three points courtesy of his solitary strike.

“It’s all looking promising for us. We are happy that we started everything on a high note. We look forward to remaining united and continue to grind positive results,” said Hwange head coach and club legend, Nation Dube.

After seeing his charges edge Caps United 1-0 in an away fixture that was played at Gweru’s Bata Stadium, Chicken Inn head coach Joey Antipas said all is pointing to the good.

“It was a great start for us but we are not going to relax. It was a great unity to our players and we need to remain motivated as there are still a lot of games to be played,” said Antipas.

Another Southern Region based PSL outfit, Arenel Movers proved to be equal to the challenge, when they held highly fancied defending league champions Ngezi Platinum Stars to a nil all draw, in a match that was played at Luveve Stadium on Saturday.

Norman Mapeza’s FC Platinum showed a good statement of intent when they beat PSL newbies Chegutu Pirates in a league game that they hosted at Zvishavane’s Mandava Stadium.

Gweru side TelOne, put up a brave fight to hold ZPC Kariba 2-2 away on the shores of Lake Kariba.

Castle Lager Premier Soccer League Week One Results

Highlanders 2-1 Dynamos, Manica Diamonds 2-3 Simba Bhora, Hwange 1-0 Yadah Caps United 0-1 Chicken Inn, Arenel Movers 0-0 Ngezi Platinum, FC Platinum 1-0 Chegutu Pirates, ZPC Kariba 2-2 Telone, Greenfuel 2-1 Bulawayo Chiefs. – @FungaiMuderere.