Chronicle Editor
Tadious Manyepo, Harare Bureau
Yadah 1-1 ZPC Kariba
YADAH coach Thomas Ruzive was impressed by his charges’ tremendous fighting spirit when rallying back to force a share of the spoils against plucky ZPC Kariba in this exciting Premiership tie at Rufaro yesterday.
Star winger Leeroy Mavhunga converted from the spot for Ruzive’s men 20 minutes from time to cancel Francisco Zekumbawira’s opener in the first half.
And for a team which is fighting for their dear life in the top-flight to rally back into the match against a side which was in total control of proceedings was an encouraging sign for Ruzive who remains adamant his side will survive the chop.
Yadah remained 14th on the log but crucially moved a point away from the drop zone with only five rounds of matches remaining.
With a little bit of better execution on the part of their strikers, Yadah should actually have wrapped the match especially towards the end when they were clearly the dominant side.
But, whatever their game plan was, Ruzive’s troops were forced to alter it a bit as they found themselves trailing on the half-hour mark when Zekumbawira’s instinctive shot on the turn off a David Temwanjera low cross, deceived Stephen Chimusoro to hit the bottom corner.
With relegation worries seemingly creeping into their minds and things going the other way in that tense first half, Yadah even became more desperate as wayward shooting and some poor decision making affected their game.
But Ruzive appeared to have hammered his boys with the right half-time message as they came back from the break somewhat more composed.
Although they launched a barrage of attacks especially from the channels where Mavhunga and Leeroy Murape were bossing, ZPC Kariba were unyielding until a clumsy challenge by Tawanda Munyanduri on Johannes Sibanda just inside the box, earned them a penalty.
An increasingly maturing Mavhunga coolly converted for the Harare side, sending Takabva Mawaya the wrong way to ensure a stalemate.
Although ZPC Kariba, who themselves are still in danger, at least mathematically, also had their chances and probed the Yadah goal especially in the final moments, but lacked the much-needed co-ordination in the attacking third, allowing the hosts to clear their lines always.
“This point is very crucial given that we need to avoid relegation. This point is key and I am happy my boys fought for it” said Ruzive.
“We have to keep on fighting and I am very confident that we will avoid relegation at the end of the day.
“We were supposed to avoid that early goal against ZPC Kariba. It forced us to change our original game plan. We were clumsy at the back for that moment.
“But my players showed they are good when it comes to fighting spirit. That’s what we need during this period when we are fighting to retain our Premiership status,”
While Ruzive saw it as a point gained rather than two dropped, his ZPC Kariba counterpart Godfrey Tamirepi was disappointed and reckoned his team deserved to walk away from Rufaro with all three points in the bag.
derick.khumalo