adminand a new environment, to take his career forward.
A lukewarm start to life at a CAPS United that struggled badly in the first half-a-dozen league games and Bosso’s magical start to the campaign, where the Bulawayo giants made a mockery of his absence, thrust Kutsanzira into sharp focus.
Questions, inevitably, began to be asked, in the capital and in the City of Kings, with some critics and fans wondering whether the star quality, in the diminutive forward, had been dramatised.
With CAPS United limping and Bosso flying, football’s cruel family, which flows with the tide, was quickly forgetting about Kutsanzira and, as pressure mounted, his form took a knock.
After starting the first two games, he was soon on the bench and, even when he came in, there was something missing from the Kutsanzira who had dazzled many at Bosso just a year ago.
But form is temporary and class, as they say all the time, is permanent.
Two weeks ago, with his coach Sean Connor’s job on the line, Kutsanzira bundled home the priceless goal at the National Sports Stadium in a 1-0 win over Quelaton that provided the Green Machine with a timely reminder of how to win matches once again.
It might not have been a pretty goal but desperate times don’t necessarily require beautiful solutions and while Kutsanzira’s goal against Quelaton was an ugly
scrambled effort, what mattered most was the end product it created.
Suddenly, CAPS United knew how to win matches once again, the psychological nonsense that they were a cursed lot was quickly banished into the memory bank and there was now a spring in their step.
Kutsanzira didn’t score, in the 1-0 win over Blue Rangers that followed, but his performance was good enough.
The critics warned that Quelaton and Blue Rangers were both lightweights and, while Kutsanzira had played well in both matches, the real tests would come against the heavyweights.
One of those heavyweights, FC Platinum, arrived at the National Sports Stadium yesterday on the back of three wins against Motor Action, Black Mambas and Gunners.
Daniel Veremu, Norman Togara, Zephania Ngodzo, all tried-and-tested defensive veterans, were part of a battery of tough defenders that FC Platinum brought to the giant stadium yesterday to provide the test for Kutsanzira and his crew.
And, on that big occasion and in his biggest test, Kutsanzira’s star shone brightest.
Two goals of the highest quality and an impressive all-round show gave the diminutive midfielder a man-of-the-match award his brilliance on the afternoon fully merited.
Slippery, focused and full of running, Kutsanzira drove the CAPS United attacks and provided the inspiration, all the time, with his penetration coming from the wings.
Somehow, he kept finding himself in acres of space, every time he had the ball, and he kept utilising it productively, running at the FC Platinum defensive lines and creating havoc with his sudden bursts of pace and deception.
Suddenly, it was like seeing the old Kutsanzira we had come to know, the boy in the black-and-white strip of Bosso, who could skip past defenders at ease, who could handle the full weight of expectation that came with his star status and, crucially, who could deliver.
His first goal, to give CAPS United the breakthrough after a period of tension in which the two sides had battled long and hard in a fierce midfield contest, was a beauty.
A good team movement down the left side of the pitch, knitted by quick passes that cut through the FC Platinum defence, saw CAPS United making a mockery of the poor surface as they ran a web around the visitors’ rearguard with the ball firmly on the ground in the whole move.
Then, after the attack had sneaked into the FC Platinum penalty area, the ball was laid back into an open pocket of space for Kutsanzira to open fire.
He powered an unstoppable drive, hit true and low, and his targeting was so precise that a veteran and good goalkeeper like Tafadzwa Dube could do very little to provide the shield as the ball arrowed into the corner to give the Green Machine the lead.
Two weeks ago, facing the same goal at the National Sports Stadium, Kutsanzira had provided the finishing touch to a move that was worked out on the left flank.
Then, the blind side gave him the camouflage that fooled the Quelaton defence and he bundled the ball home, on the second attempt, for the goal that separated the winners and the losers.
Yesterday, facing the same goal, he didn’t need a second attempt, as his rocket, hit on the run, was never going to be stopped and, as it nestled into the bottom corner, the CAPS United family came alive, rising in unison, to salute a moment of magic from their talisman.
Washington Pakamisa then hit the second after chaos in the visitors’ defence but when FC Platinum returned from the interval to score and cut the deficit in half, it turned into a severe test of the CAPS United nerves.
Even giant goalkeeper, Edmore Sibanda, who had looked an oasis of calm in the first half, was now clearly nervous and could have been beaten, after reading a headed clearance from his defence wrongly, had the ball hit the target instead of just spinning away.
In such times, you need someone to provide inspiration, either by an inspired show in defence or by providing the killer third goal.
And, when CAPS United need a hero these days, the responsibility usually falls on Kutsanzira.
Once again, just like in the first goal, there was a lot of effort put in by a number of players, including substitute Evans Gwekwerere, in the decisive move that provided the insurance third goal.
But it’s one thing creating a good opening and it’s another thing finishing it off with aplomb.
When the ball finally rolled invitingly looking for someone to pull the trigger, Kutsanzira was in the right place, at the right time, and in what was a carbon copy of the first goal, he slammed it with power and accuracy and, once again, found the bottom corner.
Just as well, Warriors’ interim coach, Rahman Gumbo, was watching from the visitors’ technical bench.
The whole CAPS United technical bench rose to join the celebrations, as they soaked in the joy that came with the realisation that they had won this battle, and Kutsanzira, the hero of the hour, was mobbed by his teammates and coaching staff.
In the stands, there was bedlam as the CAPS United fans, after suffering for so long this season, found their full voice.
You can’t put a price on such moments of pure elation and a Green Machine family, which had looked divided and confused just a few weeks ago, looked solidly united and dreaming of Great Expectations.
Online Reporter