adminIT’S a measure of the progress that CAPS United have made this season that the enduring image of their campaign hasn’t been that guy who always cries after a loss and whose tears, in times of tragedy, turned him into an unlikely celebrity fan. When a team as big as the Green Machine turns into one whose dominant sight is a fan who has smuggled his way into the back pages of newspapers, because he generates so much pity he has become a darling of picture editors, then you know something has gone terribly wrong.
When a team as huge as CAPS United is reduced to one whose dominant sound is a fan who weeps so uncontrollably, usually doing it at the centre of the field for everyone to see, every time his team goes down, then you know that the machine has slipped off the rails.
For a team as big as the Green Machine to fail to provide even a single player, among the XI Soccer Stars of the Year last season, and provide only one player, on that roll of excellence in 2011 when skipper Tapuwa Khumbuyani made it, has been ridiculous and just goes to show the morass of mediocrity that has donned those green jerseys in recent times.
But nothing stays the same forever.
And, refreshingly, there have been signs this year that things could be changing, for the better, at the Green Machine and that they find themselves, still in with a mathematical chance of winning the league championship, so late in the campaign, provides confirmation of the ground they have covered and the progress they have made.
That they are closer to the top than the bottom teams, with just three matches left in the season, with a little window still open for them to be unlikely champions, in the event they win their three remaining games and the leaders crumble in a collapse of monumental proportions, is in itself one of the success stories of the Premiership this season.
That picture of a fan crying, representing thousands of shattered souls in the CAPS United family, which was a regular feature in the local newspapers, has now been replaced by pictures of Green Machine players who have duly earned their stripes this season and will deserve to be honoured as and when the time comes for such honour to be bestowed upon them.
A player like Hardlife Zvirekwi who has expertly found a way to silence those boo-boys who wanted to ensure that his whole year would be defined by that unfortunate episode in Nairobi, when he lost his passport en-route to a World Cup qualifier in Guinea, by producing a series of eye-catching top-drawer displays.
A player like Tafadzwa Dube who, after the frustrations that followed his forgettable final year at FC Platinum where, consumed by the unhappiness that poisoned the dressing room he lost his touch and plunged from excellence to being just another ordinary ‘keeper, has reinvented himself in spectacular fashion to take his place among the Top Three ‘keepers in the country today.
Or a player like Arnold Chivheya, who had the strength of spirit to somehow weather a tsunami of abuse, the majority of it generated by his own fans who taunted him as hopeless and useless and nothing but a blue-eyed boy of Moses Chunga, to somehow find a way to show his true colours and turn himself into a pillar of this team’s defence?
A man like Taurai Mangwiro, whose soul was so battered by the depression injected by his brief suspension from the game in that Asiagate storm he cried like a toddler during his appeal hearing, but has beaten the internal demons that haunted him then and waved his magic, something that he usually gets very little credit for, to turn this CAPS United into a competitive team.
Working at a club known for the ultras, among its fans, who have this sickening habit of using any links that their coach might have had, with rivals Dynamos, as the reason for failure when their team go through a rough patch, Mangwiro’s success in an environment where some still view him as a representative of evil, is not only impressive but certainly refreshing.
Tomorrow, CAPS United return to their fortress at the National Sports Stadium, where only Dynamos have managed to beat them there this season with the Glamour Boys needing a penalty to complete that mission, for a Mbada Diamonds Cup semi-final tie against giant-killers How Mine.
It’s the Green Machine’s biggest game this season, given that it provides the promise of a final that could give them a route back to not only winning something significant but also making their way back to the African safari, and victory over How Mine will provide more proof of the progress that CAPS United have made this season.
Given all the challenges they have faced, the majority of it linked to funding, or the lack of resources to run the club given their crippled financial base which has forced the management team to throw around the begging bowel now and again just to keep the machine running, CAPS United’s success this season has been a fairy-tale.
But volatility is never far away and there are fears that their finest moment could also trigger an explosion, in the event that things don’t go well tomorrow and little How Mine continue with their giant-killing act, given that the quest to win the Mbada Diamonds Cup, and all the financial rewards that it promises, has provided the unifying factor that has kept this team together.
Last year, when they failed at this stage, after being blown out by Dynamos on the neutral fields of Barbourfields, there was an explosion with Farai Jere, then the club’s vice-president and a shareholder who still has a quarter of the club’s stake, walking away from the day-to-day running of the club and retreating into the background.
History has a funny way of repeating itself.
Those who want a Dream Final in the Mbada Diamonds Cup will pray for a CAPS United victory tomorrow and while that might be cruel on How Mine, the reality is that success for the Green Machine, and the promise of stability that it provides for this club, both in the short and long term, is certainly more important , in the context of the big picture of our football, than the romance that comes with another giant-killing act for the miners.
Hopefully, around 5pm tomorrow, the dominant sight for CAPS United won’t by that fan trying to smuggle his way into the back pages of newspapers again, generating so much pity it will virtually be impossible for the picture editors to resist him, because if that happens, it will signal a trip back into the darkness for the Green Machine.
Hopefully, around 5pm tomorrow, the dominant sound coming from the CAPS United corner won’t be that fan weeping uncontrollably, likely to be doing it at the centre of the field for everyone to see, because if that happens we will know that the Green Machine is, yet again, slipping off the rails.
Now That Boss Kaindu Is Back
Kelvin Kaindu returns to the Highlanders’ bench today for the Mbada Diamonds Cup semi-final and while he finds his team exactly where he left them, just a point adrift of the leaders in the championship race, he would have been happier if they had pocketed all points against relegated Motor Action.
Of course, Kaindu is entitled to the advancement of his coaching credentials and it’s an area that local coaches haven’t given a lot of due attention and, regrettably, they have found themselves lagging far behind in terms of tactics and this has compromised the training that our players have been receiving from the men who guide them week-in-and-week-out.
Kaindu should be saluted for finding relevance in the need to keep upgrading his coaching skills but what can’t be hidden is the fact that the timing of his personal quest to boost his CV, which in the long-term could also help Bosso in the event that he stays around for long, has the potential of destabilising the team’s chase for honours at a sensitive time of the season.
It was very clear last Sunday at Rufaro, as Bosso struggled to break down a resilient Mighty Bulls team that would have survived relegation if there was a wildcard reserved that could be earned by a team that impressed the most on the Fair Play table, that the Bulawayo giants badly missed their coach.
Yes, Bosso should show that it has the mechanism to keep functioning, even when one man is not around, because an 87-year-old institution should not be crippled, to such an extent that it virtually ceases to function as was the case last Saturday, simply because the coach is away attending a coaching course in England.
But the problem with coaches is that they do their things in a certain way, which is usually different from anybody else, and when a coach who has imposed his tactics and his style for the past two years, working with virtually the same players, and when he goes missing, at a very critical stage, it’s easy for that to have serious consequences.
It’s an arrangement that you are unlikely to see at any top club in the world but now that Kaindu is back, hopefully, it will be back to business for Bosso in their quest for the League and Cup double although a contest against a feisty Harare City, who have nothing to lose, is quite a huge test and should conclude what has been a magical year for the people of Zvishavane.
They saw the NetOne Charity Shield come to their town this year, the BancABC Sup8r Cup final held in their town, with the match featuring the town’s two Premiership teams, and now they close the show with a Mbada Diamonds Cup semi-final showdown that pits two teams with a realistic chance of winning the League and Cup Double.
Battle Of Zimbabwe On SuperSport
TWO weeks after the epic contest at Barbourfields, Multichoice were yesterday still showing that titanic Battle of Zimbabwe showdown on SuperSport 9 and the more that you watch the game the clearer that its beauty emerges and you get to appreciate that this was one of the truly great matches of our Premiership.
That SuperSport have been showing it, for two weeks without a break, provides confirmation that even their producers have been seeing something special, in what happened at Barbourfields that afternoon, they believe the repeated screening of that match won’t turn away viewers from the television screens.
Forget that this was just a one-goal game, with the goal coming from a very late penalty, because this was a quality match, where both defences stood firm, where there was life in the midfield areas of both teams and where the forwards put in a lot in their shifts.
The more that you watch it, the more that its true value emerges as one of the all-time finest matches that have been played in our local league, which has had its fair share of pathetic games in recent years, a game so rich in quality one feels it didn’t get the publicity it deserved, as a real classic, as it was drowned in the controversy torched by the expulsion of Jaure and Njabulo.
For Victor Kamhuka to be thrown into that deep end and still have the composure to play as well as he did, under those trying circumstances, was a beautiful story on its own it deserved an article, or articles, in newspapers to give it its proper context.
For Bruce Kangwa to turn on such an electric show, rapidly shifting defence into attack all the time that he was in possession, and popping up in dangerous positions that kept giving the visitors headaches was such a grand performance, so good it didn’t need you to be a Bosso fan to appreciate the mastery of his work, deserved more, in terms of publicity, than what he got.
For George Chigova to stand so tall, when his team needed him the most, for Peter “Rio” Moyo to produce such a commanding, yet lovely, performance, for Cliff Sekete to come in and make such a huge difference, in a season where he has struggled to impose himself, for Mthulisi Maphosa to turn back the hands of time, for Ocean Mushure to retain his coolness, in converting the penalty, when everything around him was erupting, was simply awesome.
But the more that you watch this contest, the more that you see that it wasn’t about individuals but about teams that came out to play football, threw everything at each other, at the same time retaining a presence of mind that they also needed to be methodical in going about their business, and what they produced was so good, so beautiful, it deserves to be hailed as a real great battle.
In terms of quality, I don’t think we have seen any game as good as that Battle of Zimbabwe in recent years on the local scene, and every player in that show deserves a pat on the back for playing a part in what was a pretty advertisement for our local Premiership.
I think if there is an area that can be improved then it’s in the way we are either reporting, broadcasting or analysing these matches because if you listened to Barry Manandi and Mike Madoda on Game Plan on ZTV, after the Battle of Zimbabwe, a lot of time was spent debating the incident that resulted in Jaure and Njabulo being sent off.
Somehow, during that show, both the anchors and their guest, kept saying that Jaure had been booked earlier, prior to the incident that resulted in the red cards, and so even if he had received a yellow card for that altercation with Njabulo, he would still have had to walk.
But Jaure hadn’t been booked prior to that incident, which is a fact, and if that had been correctly captured by the guys who were reviewing the game on Game Plan on ZTV, it would have helped shape their discussion and, crucially, ensure that they would help the people at home, who depended on them for analysis and guidance, get a better understanding of what had happened.
Now and again, you are confronted by reports saying that Gabriel Nyoni, the hotshot Bosso forward, is in his debut season in the Premiership, having been signed during the mid-season transfer window and you ask yourself that if the journalists themselves don’t know, or even care to verify their facts, how much are they poisoning the readers?
A simple check of the records will reveal that Gabriel Nyoni played in the Premiership three years ago, for Shooting Stars, and came in a substitute at Gwanzura against Bantu Rovers on August 28, 2010, and also as a substitute in a 1-0 win over Lengthens.
Because journalists don’t care to check their facts, Gishon Ntini can spend the whole week telling the world that he has never lost to Dynamos, and the sports writers take it as gospel and poison their readers, when the reality is that he was in charge of Shooting Stars when they were hammered 4-0 by DeMbare.
Gunners Look Like The Real Deal
Only enemies of football can tell you that what Arsenal have been doing, in recent months, is not something so good it shatters the barriers that make us supporters of this and that time, it cures the allergy that we seemingly develop when our rivals are writing a story that is so beautiful.
For them to go to Germany and beat Borussia Dortmund, in their own stadium, was no mean feat and you have to give them credit for their resilience, which enabled them to survive the onslaught, and their counter attacks, which enabled them to score when it mattered.
Tomorrow, they come to face a team where victory will be sweater than anything they have done so far this season and while something tells me that this mean Gunners machine will crumble at Old Trafford, it doesn’t mean I’m blinded from seeing the beautiful painting they have created in recent months.
To God Be The Glory
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chicharitoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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