adminmotion picture soundtrack for CAPS United’s finest hour, outside the capital, this year.
The punishing heat, too, couldn’t drain life out of a group of players who played with a swagger. It was impossible to believe this was virtually the same team that had limped from one poor result to another other in a largely forgettable season.
In those challenging conditions, so far away from the comforts of home sweet home, the real CAPS United stood up to be counted and left a huge impression with a performance pregnant with both style and commitment in their 2-0 win.
“Somehow, we feel like a team now, we are playing for each other now, we are playing for the fans and you can see that there is a chemistry between the supporters and the players, which is good,” said striker Shingi Kawondera.
There have been a number of occasions this year when CAPS United have been so average they have looked every bit like a poor green-and-white clone of Shooting Stars.
But on Saturday it was hard to pick a hero, not because there wasn’t one, but because there were so many of them on an afternoon when the Green Machine finally played at a level expected from such a giant of domestic football.
Mandava provided the stage and CAPS United provided the show that captured the imagination and when it all came to an end, with so many happy faces around, it was easy to see the light that had filtered through the darkness of a season plagued by mediocrity.
Diminutive ‘keeper, Itai Chiwara, is something like a lucky charm for the Green Machine because the club has never lost a match in which he keeps goal for them.
But there was nothing lucky about Chiwara’s commanding performance, in which he made two incredible top-drawer saves, which would have dominated SuperSport’s “What A Week” blitz package had this game been shown on the pay-per-view television channel.
Frozen out of the team for the last three years because coaches didn’t like his little frame at a time when a giant, Eddie Sibanda, was the flavour of the season,
Chiwara has gambled on his patience, waiting for his golden chance to come along.
That his breakthrough came in the depths of despair, with his team trapped in a quagmire of denial and with the losses mounting after each passing game, didn’t make his job any easier.
He was barely tested in that nervy win over Hardbody and while he made one good save against Motor Action in the victory in the Mbada Diamonds Cup, the poor pitch at the Potato Field meant that there was very little goalmouth action to pass a good judgment on the ‘keepers.
But against an FC Platinum team that had scored seven goals in their last two matches, against Quelaton in Bulawayo and a plucky Harare City on neutral ground in Kariba, this was always going to be a big test for Chiwara.
An early beautiful fingertip save, at full stretch to deny Ali Sadiki, and a superb instinctive save, after substitute Michelle Katsvairo had connected with a close range header, with Chiwara springing into the air to somehow tip the ball over, stood out on a fine day at the office.
When club vice-president Farai Jere questioned the commitment of some of his senior players and cracked the whip to offload those he believed didn’t have a heart for the team anymore, his comments and actions were greeted with a lot of suspicion at the club.
Jere was looking for scapegoats, thundered his critics, to cover up for his own shortcomings and the innocent players were being sacrificed by a ruthless leadership that had lost its way.
But it’s fair to suggest that Chiwara wouldn’t have got his chance in the team, if ZiKeeper’s contract had not been terminated, when the directors decided to clear the weeds they believed were contaminating the fresh water in their dam.
This looks so much like a new CAPS United team that returning skipper Tapiwa Khumbuyani, back in the fold after a lengthy time on the sidelines, took time to settle into the rhythm of his teammates and, in that first half, was the weakest link in this side.
In contrast, Asani Nhongo appears every bit like the leftback of the Warriors of 2009, when his outstanding contribution helped the team win the Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup, and as his confidence floods back into his system, everything looks simple again.
He scored a stunning opener, curling a beauty from a dead ball from a distance, picking and finding his target at the angle where the crossbar meets the upright and squeezing his shot home with a golden effort few ‘keepers would have saved.
Interestingly, it’s in the three departments, where the CAPS leadership took the big decision to weed out the crowd favourites, whom they believed were no longer assets to the team — goalkeeping, central defence and attacking midfield — where the Green Machine have improved significantly in recent weeks.
Blessing Zabula and Tawanda “Rambo” Munyanduri have suddenly found a way to stop the leakage of goals through central defence, and in the last three games, CAPS have conceded once and none in the last two against Motor Action and FC Platinum.
But it’s in midfield where CAPS have taken a huge leap forward.
Tendai Samanje has been the stand-out player playing the defensive midfield role and was man-of-the-match again on Saturday, a week after another man-of-the-match performance against the Mighty Bulls.
Hardlife Zvirekwi and Rahman Kutsanzira on the flanks have been effective, as usual, but the guy who has brought a new dimension to that midfield, and given CAPS United a spring in their step, is Pride Tafirenyika.
Overlooked in the past for one reason or another, Tafirenyika has become Taurai Mangwiro’s creative hub, the conductor of his orchestra, and the more time he is spending on the pitch, the better his confidence is getting and the more productive he is becoming.
David Rediyon provides the cover for that midfield and, for all the good things he has done in the past three weeks, he had to start from the bench on Saturday.
There he was, in the company of Kawondera, as Mangwiro gave giant newboy, Nqobile Mpala, his first start in the team to team up with Leonard Fiyado, in attack.
It’ still early days for CAPS United to believe they have found the right combinations to make them consistently win games, like the giant that they are, and to make a big impression in the Mbada Diamonds Cup.
But when it takes you three months, 11 matches and about 17 hours to win your first match, winning three on the bounce feels like heaven, doesn’t it, and you can be forgiven even if your dreams are wild.
That’s why the band played on, all afternoon, even in the suffocating heat of Mandava, on Saturday.
Online Reporter