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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
WITH just a swing of his right foot, a connection not as sweet as they come but still good enough to inflict serious damage, Dominic Chungwa scrambled home a priceless goal that ended a seven-year nightmare as CAPS United finally won the Harare Derby at Rufaro yesterday. Amid delirium among the Green Machine fans, who have had to live with the punishing weight of taunts from their biggest rivals as they were repeatedly reminded of how they become impotent whenever they meet the Glamour Boys in the league, CAPS United celebrated this triumph as if they had just ended their dozen years of a fruitless search for the championship.

It’s a victory that has been a long time in coming.

Since their last league win over their biggest rivals, on April 12, 2009, a lot had changed around the world – the globe embraced its youngest nation, South Sudan, and Alfredo di Stefano, the supremely-gifted Argentine/Spanish football superstar considered by some people as the greatest of all-time, passed away.

The Arab Spring erupted around the world, Osama Bin Laden was killed, the FIFA leadership – headed by Sepp Blatter – collapsed under the weight of corruption scandals and Christopher Lee, the actor who rocketed to fame in Count Dracula, died.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 360 told air traffic controllers “Good Night Malaysian Three Seven Zero” and then disappeared from the radar in one of the greatest mysteries of our time while the world also waved goodbye to singer, Joe Cocker, the man who made us sing along his classic lyrics, “With a little help from my friends.”

Of course, Chungwa did it, with a little help from his friends, with CAPS United needing the heroics of goalkeeper Jorum Muchambo – a man vilified just two weeks ago for his howler that gifted newboys Ngezi Platinum a point in the only league match the Green Machine have failed to win so far – as the goalminder pulled off a number of good saves.

Method Mwanjali, who only a week ago was languishing in remand prison as his employers scrambled together the legal team to bring him home, was thrown into battle from the word go, in a brave decision by coach Lloyd Chitembwe, and while the veteran player was given some tough moments, in an unfamiliar midfield role by the impressive Brett Amidu, he justified his selection by providing the experience his team needed.

Amidu, the diminutive player who appears on course to follow in the footsteps of his father Hussein and brother Abbas, who all made a big impression in the game, was the outstanding player for the Glamour Boys with a performance, rich in quality which mocked his young age, and was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet.

But others will credit Chitembwe for trusting Mwanjali’s experience to track the vibrant youngster, arguing that any other player’s confidence would have been shattered – for good – by those flicks and tricks that saw Amidu rule the midfield, in the first half, before CAPS United battled their way for a piece of their share in the second half.

Maybe this victory had been coming for the Green Machine.

After all, last year, they stood toe-to-toe against their biggest rivals, with the two matches in the Harare Derby ending in draws, with the Green Machine showing a lot of character, especially in the second match at Rufaro, to battle their way back for a share of the spoils after Takesure Chinyama had given DeMbare the lead.

Leonard Tsipa, another of the veterans in this CAPS United team, was the hero back then with his header flying home for the equaliser.

Yesterday, the scoring honours belonged to his strike partner, Chungwa, a man who, interestingly, was on the payroll of Dynamos this time last year – in a marriage of convenience that never worked out – before he tracked his way back home for the green comforts of CAPS United.

He was unlucky not to get a brace, timing his adventure into the Dynamos penalty area to perfection, with television replays showing that he had remained on side when the ball was flighted into the box, and then glancing a header past Tatenda Mukuruva.

So, from the events of last season, nothing changed for CAPS United – just like in those two league matches in the Harare Derby the Green Machine scored a solitary goal.

But something changed for the Glamour Boys – unlike in those two battles last season, Dynamos did not get a goal and that, ultimately, was what made the difference.

CAPS United fans have been waiting for long for this to happen and the chemistry appeared to filter into their players once they had calmed their nerves, after an opening period of nerves which DeMbare dominated and could have punished them, as they found their rhythm and started taking the game to their rivals.

Chitembwe also appeared to get his substitutions right with his decision to pull out Tsipa justified and the pace, and trickery of Simba Nhivi on the flanks, giving them the width that they had lacked in the first half.

This wasn’t a vintage Harare Derby but neither was it lifeless because there were a number of opportunities for either side and CAPS United took one of theirs, after the DeMbare defence failed to clear their lines, while the Glamour Boys were either found wanting in attack or Muchambo provided a wall of resistance on the occasions they found the target.

A lot was expected from Rodreck Mutuma, the self-styled Prince of the Glamour Boys who usually rise to the big occasion, and although he fed his partners with some good chances, it’s the goals that he should produce because it’s the goals that make a difference.

At least, after more than half-a-dozen years when memories of Nyasha Mushekwi would be evoked, every time his big game came along, CAPS United’s win yesterday means that the Zimbabwe international striker’s heroics in 2009 can now be stored in the achieves, where they belong.

The jinx has been broken, thanks to Chungwa, as Joe Cocker would sing, “with a little help from his friends.”