adminOff the ball with Skhumbuzo Moyo
THE Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season enters week nine today and tomorrow with a number of exciting matches lined up. Bulawayo’s rising giants, Chicken Inn, get into week nine leading the pack with 19 points and are one of the championship favourites even though head coach Joe Antipas keeps on singing the “it’s early days” tune.
Big boys are measured by big wins and there is no better and bigger win than beating the reigning champions in their own backyard.
Some big and known teams have failed to beat Dynamos since 2006, home and away, yet Chicken Inn drove to the capital and handed the Glamour boys their worst defeat in 10 years, winning 3-0 last Sunday. It marked game number two in which Dynamos had failed to score and on Wednesday, it was game number three after being beaten 1-0 by Whawha.
The people’s team, Highlanders, whose coach Bongani Mafu had been under siege turned on the power and trampled upon poor Flame Lily 3-0 and in the process registered their biggest win of the season. Many believe Amahlolanyama have turned the corner following that morale boosting away win.
While Bosso seem to have hit the right chord, some teams are still finding it difficult to record a win with debutants Dongo Sawmill as well as seasoned campaigners Hwange the only two teams yet to register a win, eight matches into the season.
Expensively assembled How Mine, with some of the players brought on board yet to kick the ball, have not been enjoying the best of performances despite the 6-0 pummelling of Whawha.
Electricity men, ZPC Kariba, who announced their entry into the elite league last season in grand style in which they were almost crowned champions until the very last day of the season, are a pale shadow of their former selves, struggling for form that has seen head coach Saul Chaminuka and his assistant Godfrey Tamirepi being “suspended” with immediate effect although well placed sources said the duo have already been fired.
As the league enters week nine this afternoon, the big question will be; after Chaminuka, who is set to follow?
It’s almost certain that from some of the struggling teams, another coach or coaches will be jobless after this weekend’s matches as clubs take a leaf from ZPC Kariba, diagnose and treat, urgently.
Three coaches are at this moment not very safe from the boot, unless they post positive results.
Never mind the good draw posted to Caps United on Wednesday, Hwange’s Nation Dube needs to win tomorrow’s match against Flame Lily otherwise, the management, which has clearly been patient, might not have it anymore.
The same applies to David Mandigora whose future with Dynamos lies in a positive result over FC Platinum at Rufaro Stadium tomorrow afternoon. Yes, club chairman Kenny Mubaiwa might have laid his support for the coach but a loss tomorrow might stretch his patience a bit too far.
DeMbare have picked just a point out of a possible nine in their last three games and what makes it even worse is that they have not scored during the same period.
DeMbare drew 0-0 with Harare City, before losing to Chicken Inn and Whawha respectively. It will be a miracle if Mandigora keeps his job if he losses to FC Platinum. It will even be worse for the Dynamos supporters if Highlanders get maximum points and leapfrog their perennial rivals on the table. The rivalry between these two giants is well documented, similar to Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Real Madrid coaches have been fired even after lifting the La Liga as long as they would have lost to Barcelona, such is the rivalry.
So Mubaiwa might say Mandigora’s job is safe but it’s certainly not a finality and certainty. The doctor of football too, is not really safe and could find himself joining Chaminuka if he loses to tricky Tsholotsho at Luveve Stadium today, a venue that his boys are yet to score at this season.
Mafu, in charge of Amahlolanyama, did himself a huge favour on Wednesday with an emphatic drubbing of Flame Lily, a result that saw his strikers Obadiah Tarumbwa, Gabriel Nyoni and Thomas Chideu all on target. I personally think he is way out of danger and Bosso has hit the right tone at the right time. It will be hard for the black and white army to lose at home after such an impressive away win. History is just against that, hence the reason why Mafu is not one of my favourites to join Chaminuka after this weekend’s matches.
I don’t believe what Mandla Mpofu, Mafu’s assistant said at their press conference, that happy times are around the corner for Highlanders, I believe happy times are already here for the Highlanders supporters.
Just like we highlighted in this column a few weeks ago that Monomotapa once went through a similar phase and when they struck the right chord, they simply became invincible until their captain walked to the podium to lift the league title trophy.
Online Reporter