adminBulawayo City FC vs Bulawayo Chiefs FC B/Fields Stadium
29 March 2018
Comedy Football
After watching the first five minutes of the game seeing Bulawayo City stringing 12 complete passes I said Hallelujah, at last we are going to witness some good football.
Little did I know it was going to be 90 minutes of comedy football. Fans were to later see Bulawayo City players, some with no pressure exerted on them whatsoever, kicking the ball off the pitch or completely mis-kicking the ball or pumping it into the sky.
The way the players, from both teams — Bulawayo City and Bulawayo Chiefs — could not pass accurately could have left someone coming from Mars to believe they were some sort of Father Christmas on the pitch, because of the manner in which they gave the ball away for the better part of the game.
But we are in April, so it’s too early for Christmas presents for goodness sake!
The highlights of the game were the Bulawayo City goalkeeper Takudzwa Ndoro’s distribution skill which was a joy to watch and the pinpoint passes to his playmates. Of note was also every time Timothy January was with the ball, his individual dribbling runs and when he scored a beautiful goal in the 48th minute. Oh ye,s the penalty scored with precision by a Bulawayo Chiefs young player. But I will politely say to both technical benches, if your players cannot have collective myths during the season you will be among the relegation candidates.
Highlanders FC Vs Triangle FC
B/Fields Stadium — 30 March 2018
Referee steals the show
The best entertainment of the day during the game came from Hwange referee Mhaka Magare showcasing his fitness abilities, his bursting short sprints and back paddling runs on slow motion reminding everyone of the late Michael Jackson dancing moves. Fans found this to be money well spent on the day.
But Highlanders could have scored two goals in the 13th minute and 15th minutes if Ozias Zibande was more clinical, especially from the first chance when he benefited from accurate ball distribution by none other than veteran goalkeeper Ariel Sibanda. Statistics do not lie, after the first half you could tell how the game would end with Highlanders’ employment of the long passes which never got to the intended person. The middle fielders also did not win possession in their working area resulting in failing to construct moves to get goals for their attacking journey.
The home team’s midfielders also did not win many tussles in the middle of the park. Nigel Makumbe was involved in 20 one-on-one tussles, but the boy won nothing. It was a surprise he played until the second half of the game. While he is brilliant when with the ball, he needs to work on his marking and fighting for the ball abilities.
Brian Banda won nothing on 12 occasions; Godfrey Makaruse on 11 occasions also won zero; Ben Patrick Musaka also failed to win on 17 occasions.
I will say this to players and the technical staff — the connection between possession and success is an obvious thing and I think the Highlanders team needs a tactical leader and a human leader on the Starting Eleven. Without these two leadership qualities it is going to be difficult to win some games.
Triangle had a very good tactical discipline on the day only to be let down by their attacking players who lacked aggression, creativeness, and were timid on decision making. On the last third of the pitch, if these qualities had been applied they could have gone back home with three points. Anyway, getting a point at B/F is as good as a win and being their first point of the 2018 season made it sweeter I suppose.
The technical staff led by Taurai Mangwiro must be proud of themselves considering that in 2017 they lost home and away to Highlanders. It will be unfair not to mention Triangle goalkeeper Marion Chan. The goalkeeper can be the factor in winning and losing a game. The goalkeeper is the “Joker” in the pack, but that is not to say that his humour is any sharper than the rest of the team. It means that he is different, he has different skills that does a different job and requires different training. He is however, very much part of the team and needs to have just as much an understanding with his fellow players as they do with each other and I will mention the save he pulled in the last minutes of the game from a thunderbolt by Adrian Sila which was worth the point they got in this game.
FOR THE COACHES
Setting training objectives
The way to high performance is filled with difficult demands. Such challenges engage mental, physical, social and environmental aspects that have significant bearing in performance — step by step — through useful training. All game aspects responsible for success are continually consolidated, as an example, the objective of training for improving individual ball possession in condition of opponents marking pressure would result in the team’s improvement in consistency in preparing and finishing attacks.
History — first World Cup 1930 entries Argentine, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil , Chile, France, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, United States, Uruguay, Yugoslavia. The final was between Uruguay and Argentine. Uruguay winning the Tr ophy 4-2.
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Online Reporter