CAPS United fans will always remember Charles Mhlauri as their legendary coach, not because he won league titles but because he used to find ways to beat Dynamos Charles Mhlauri

Charles MhlauriSHARUKO ON SATURDAY

Mangwiro is our weakest link, they shouted in voices heavy with anger, he is a spy, they thundered in voices filled with hatred, he has cost us dearly, they argued in voices filled with emotions, he is a fool, someone even said as we left the VIP Enclosure, and with him we will never win the league, as if he has been the coach all these nine years when they have come short.

IT  had taken 458 minutes, about seven-and-half hours, six matches of the Harare Derby spread over three years and, for the first time since becoming Dynamos coach, Callisto Pasuwa found himself a goal down to CAPS United in a league match on Sunday.

For the first in 638 minutes of head-to-head action — spread over six league matches and two battles in the Mbada Diamonds Cup — Pasuwa found himself in unfamiliar territory on Sunday as his men chased a game, for the first time, against CAPS United.

Until that moment, when Tendai Samanja propelled the Green Machine into the lead at the National Sports Stadium, triggering pandemonium in the bay housing the CAPS United fans, the good people of Makepekepe had never known, let alone enjoyed, the luxury of leading a tie, with Pasuwa standing in the opposite corner.

Of course, Dominic Mukandi had powered them into the lead, which ultimately proved the winner, in the ZNA Charity Shield semi-finals in May, but Pasuwa wasn’t in the opposite corner as he was away with the Warriors, and his lieutenant, Philemon Mutyakureva, was in charge.

But, for 47 minutes that flirted between the possibility of a meltdown — as CAPS United’s lively movement, style and pace, aptly provided on the wide areas by an inspired Tico-Tico Alifandika, overwhelmed a DeMbare rearguard at sea — and incredible escape tales, in which fate kept smiling at the Glamour Boys who twice needed the width of the post to save them, Pasuwa chased the game.

This was a different Green Machine, not the crippled one that had misfired miserably in those contests in the past, where there was fear in the past, all that you could see was courage on the faces of a set of players whose performance levels kept rising in a first half that, on the balance of probabilities, should have delivered far more than the one goal they took into the break.

Then, a coach who hasn’t been given the respect that his work, in winning three straight league titles, deserves, who still divides opinion among his employers with some questioning whether he is a genius or just a fluke and who has a huge constituency, even among his fans, which still can’t embrace him as a legend of his time, stood up to be counted.

A coach who has been treated with contempt, as if his harvest of three straight league titles has been the product of a gambler with the luck of winning the lottery than a strategist, our domestic version of the Special One, who was rewarded by his brilliance, needed 47 minutes of swimming against the tide — for the first time in the Derby — to come of age.

When he came in at a time of crisis in 2011, and helped Dynamos stage one of the greatest comeback stories in the history of the domestic championship to pip FC Platinum to the title, his critics dismissed him as a lucky chap, who rode on the arrival of Cuthbert Malajila and the goals and experience that the speedster provided, and there was a temptation to credit Lloyd Mutasa for recruiting most of the players.

When he won the league title again in 2012, his critics said Highlanders had blown it, instead of saying Dynamos had won it, after Bosso spectacularly self-destructed, one afternoon at Rufaro, as an inspired Monomotapa rain riot and won 3-0 in a stunning season-defining result that tilted the scales in favour of the Glamour Boys.

When he won the league title, again in 2013, his critics said Bosso had blown it again, by being humiliated at Rufaro by Silas Songani and his Harare City, but the same City, with their destiny in their hands, failed to jump the final hurdle and when they drew against CAPS United, the sum total of what Pasuwa and his men had done throughout the season took them to the top again when time was called on the marathon.

If he was good, he wouldn’t win the league by goal difference all the time, they shouted from a distance, he wouldn’t be so clueless when it comes to the Champions League, DeMbare wouldn’t be hammered for seven in Tunisia, wouldn’t lose to some funny nameless team in Lesotho and wouldn’t be eliminated by AS Vita.

But, in the Derby on Sunday, with his back to the wall, facing a situation he had never faced before, Callisto Pasuwa gave us a reminder that there is a functional football management brain in that clean-shaven head, that those who have been labelling him a lucky gambler are misplaced and he has an analytical mind that few have been giving him credit for.

Because he is Pasuwa, very few will give him credit for playing Magorimbo at leftback when the easier option would have been to move Mbara into that role and juggle with the central defence, very few will give him credit for shifting Chitiyo from a central midfield role, where his lack of freedom in the first half suffocated his creativity, into a free swinging role after the interval.

Because he is Pasuwa, very few will give him credit for his decision, for the second week running, to throw Simba Sithole in to play on the wing, believing that pace from a fresh pair of legs will expose the Green Machine’s vulnerability and while Mutuma profited from Simba’s industry and pass for the only goal in the OneWallet Cup, Pakamisa blew a golden chance from a similar move on Sunday.

Because he is Pasuwa, very few will give him credit for ending the game with five attack-minded players — Simba, Madamombe, Mutuma, Rooney and Mbimba — even though his team took the lead with 22 minutes left in the game and, when he pulled out Pakamisa in the final 10 minutes, he didn’t go for someone to defend but added another forward.

Because he is Pasuwa, we are comfortable saying that it was just a coincidence that he decided it was time to throw in Madamombe on the left side of the attack and, two minutes later, the same player rewarded him with a goal that ultimately proved to be the winner.

But don’t lose sleep Callisto over all this, it’s what we do best as Zimbabweans, kusvorana all the time, always deriving joy in negativity, always finding comfort in undermining others, never prepared to appreciate the genius in our fellow nationals but give us a foreigner like Sean Conner and see how quick we are to embrace him as a magician.

Pasuwa might not win a fourth straight league title this year, the odds don’t favour his team who, for a change, have 13 away games out of their fortress in the capital this season, but even if he doesn’t, don’t dismiss him as a lucky gambler because, as he showed in the Derby on Sunday, there is a ticking football management brain in that clean-shaven head.

MANGWIRO AND THE HURDLE
HE MUST CLEAR
In those 45 minutes when his team drilled holes in that DeMbare defence at will, kept running at them with pace and in numbers, when they scored that opener and hit the post again and again and when they created those good chances it would have been acceptable if the scoreline, at the break, was CAPS 5-Dynamos 0, Mangwiro looked very much the hero.

With a party in the stands, among their fans, a team at peace with itself and an opponent on the ropes, just hanging on and wondering why they hadn’t been floored by a knockout punch, everything was going according to script and Bla Tau, as they call him, was clearly the man-of-the-moment and, for a change, no one was abusing him for being a sell-out whose porridge, his baby food, used to be prepared in the enemy’s camp.

Those 45 first-half minutes of beautiful football had not come from nowhere, seasoned observers would have duly noted, because this a CAPS United team that had stood toe-to-toe with the old enemy in the first league game of the Derby this year, refusing to give away an inch, and were duly rewarded with a point their industry clearly deserved.

Even when they lost, in the OneWallet Cup, there was a feeling, among a host of neutrals, that fate had dealt them a cruel blow, the better team had somehow lost, and this loss had more to do with a psychological burden, which they seem to carry on their shoulders whenever they come into the Derby, than being beaten by a superior opponent.

But, in this cruel game where results overshadow everything else, the last 45 minutes of the Derby on Sunday left Bla Tau facing a host of fierce critics, who blamed him for the way his team abandoned the adventure that had served them well in the first half and, against all wisdom, withdrew into a shell from where they invited their opponents to attack them.

That his gamble to start with his newboys had worked so well, in the first half, and given his team a new dimension in their attack, was quickly forgotten, in the explosion of emotions that greeted  DeMbare’s stunning comeback, and suddenly there were fault-lines in his decision to withdraw Muchenje, instead of Mukandi, as the going got tough.

Some even saw his Dynamosness, that part of him that only comes alive to this group of CAPS United fans when his team is losing, that part of him that is only visible to them when things aren’t going well, and the fact that another player with a lot of Dynamosness in him, Alifandika, had been their star player, was conveniently forgotten.

He is our weakest link, they shouted in voices heavy with anger, he is a spy, they thundered in voices filled with hatred, he has cost us dearly, they argued in voices filled with emotions, he is a fool, someone even said as we left the VIP Enclosure, and with him we will never win the league, as if he has been the coach all these nine years when they have come short.

But, maybe, some have a point.
FOR ALL THE TALK THAT CAPS UNITED HAVE BEEN COMPETITIVE THIS YEAR, HAVE BEEN STRONGER AS A TEAM AND HAVE BEEN LIVELIER AS A UNIT, THE REALITY IS THAT THE GREEN MACHINE, AFTER 16 GAMES, HAVE THE SAME NUMBER OF POINTS THEY HAD, AFTER THE SAME NUMBER OF GAMES, IN THEIR LEAGUE CAMPAIGN LAST YEAR.

They were FOUR points behind the leaders, just like last year they have won EIGHT games, just like last year they have lost FIVE, just like last year they have drawn THREE and, just like last year, they have 27 points from 16 games — which means, from a business concept point, THEY HAVE NOT IMPROVED IN TERMS OF THEIR VALUE.

Of course, no one knows what the future holds and it’s possible, now that the stumbling block is out of the way, that CAPS United can go on a very good run, in the last 14 games, and end up being champions of this country, for the first time since 2005, with Mangwiro turning into the hero that he was in those first 45 minutes of the Derby.

But, even if that happens, the CAPS United fans will always remember Charles Mhlauri as their legendary coach, not because he would have won one more league title than Bla Tau, but because Bla Charlie used to find a way to beat Dynamos and, to the die-hard Green Machine fan, that means quite a lot.

Joel Shambo is widely considered to be CAPS United’s greatest ever captain, even though he never led them to a league championship, but those who followed the Green Machine in the ‘80s will tell you that it was a combination of the knockout trophies, a lot of them, which he helped them to win and, crucially how as leader, he used to take on the DeMbare challenge.

Shambo’s legendary status might have been built when he declined to follow Stix and Sinyo to Rhinos but it’s also his leadership skills, especially the way he perfected the art of turning on his best against DeMbare, Eddie Muchongwe and the late ‘keeper Leo Ntawatawa will provide supporting affidavits to this, while his stellar show, in that seven-goal route of the old enemy, will always be a landmark moment, which cemented it.

Luis Maio, the passionate CAPS United team manager, is right in his argument that his team should look at the bigger picture that winning the league is more important than winning the Derby but Mangwiro should also know that, until he wins the Derby, floors the old enemy, his acceptance into the Green Machine family will always be tricky.

Until he clears that hurdle, those 45 minutes pregnant with joy, a goal and great expectations, which we saw in the first half of the Derby, will be forgotten quickly and some will start to see his Dynamosness, that part of him that only comes alive to this group of CAPS United fans when his team is losing, that part of him that is only visible to them when things aren’t going well.

That’s the way things are and, even if it might not make sense to you, that’s what our football world is.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO VITALIS CHOTO aka TSURO
Recently I carried out a research on the head-to-head contests between CAPS United and Dynamos and found out some interesting stuff.
My research spans from the turn of this millennium because data within this range was easier to collect than data from the ‘80s due to poor record-keeping within our football.

Dynamos’ Five-Year Lean Spell
The current barren spell stretching over 60 months being experienced by CAPS United is actually not new. Dynamos went through the same lean spell between 2002 and 2007.

The CAPS United Decade — 2000 to 2009
Of the 20 games played, CAPS United won 10, drew six and Dynamos won four. CAPS generally thrived in games played in the first quarter of the year, and in the last quarter of the year. The second quarter of the year favoured Dynamos and the third quarter could go either way.

The Derby Rule of the Decade was that summers were for CAPS and winters were for Dynamos.

The Dynamos Decade — 2010 to 2019
From 2010, Dynamos has been successful and have NINE wins and CAPS United have only ONE draw. There are still TEN more games to be played to complete the FORTY match cycle since 2000. The overall standings show Dynamos with TWELVE wins and CAPS are on TEN.

CAPS United’s Five-Year Lean Spell
Judging by the trends of the decades, the next Derby is going to see a CAPS win. The five years are up now, which DeMbare served between 2002 and 2007. I suppose CAPS elected to serve theirs from the start of the Dynamos decade – 2010 to 2014. Interestingly, the Derby Rule of the Decade continues to apply, with all Dynamos victories coming in months May, June, July and August. Colder months favour Dynamos and warmer months favour CAPS.

The Future
On the balance of probability, these contests will even out eventually, the next time the two play in a league match just check the decade under review and the months the game is being played, you will get a rough idea of the outcome.

CAPS United will have an upper hand again beginning 2019 to 2029 – five years before Zimbabwe host the 2034 World Cup. Keep this article, Bla Rob, it will be handy one day.

The Table
References — The Herald, The Chronicle, Sunday Mail, New Zimbabwe, Daily News, Newsday, ZBC News, SuperSport, www.soccerway.com,  www.league321.com,  www.futball24.com,  CNN Mabika  interviews, Rob Sharuko articles, Lovemore Banda, ZBC News clips, This is Football, Game of the Week, Ian Zvoma ZBC sports desk, Minister Walter Mzembi.

This writer intends to open a college for Scientific and Forensic Football Prophecy by 2019.

To God Be The Glory!

Don’t Cry For Me Argentina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Messiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

Text Feedback — 0772545199
WhatsApp Messenger – 0772545199
Email — [email protected]
Skype — sharuko58
Like my new Facebook page, ROBSON SHARUKO JOURNALIST, follow me on Twitter @Chakariboy, interact with me on Viber and on ZBC’s weekly television football magazine programme, GamePlan on Monday nights, or read my material in The Southern Times.

You Might Also Like

Comments

Take our Survey

We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey