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Murape Murape

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
HARARE giants Dynamos may no longer have the destiny of the championship in their hands but the defending champions have vowed to “fight to the bitter end’’ in their quest for a fourth straight Castle Lager Premiership title. Dynamos slipped into second place and two points behind ZPC Kariba when the electricity men came from behind to win the decisive encounter 2-1 at the National Sports Stadium two weeks ago.

That victory left ZPC Kariba coach Saul Chaminuka and his men needing to just hold their nerve on Super Sunday and avoid a late slip-up when they host CAPS United at Gwanzura, the same day that Dynamos will play How Mine at the National Sports Stadium.

Victory for ZPC Kariba would render the outcome of the Dynamos/How Mine encounter irrelevant but the scenario could yet take a dramatic twist should the debutants fail to beat CAPS United.

Dynamos skipper Murape Murape yesterday insisted that they would only concede the championship title at the end of business on Super Sunday.
“As a team we are not giving up. There are 30 games that are played in the league and we have played 29 of them so the job has not been done yet,” said Murape.

“We just have to go and play to win against How Mine and in any case we are paid to win. It is important that we retain our focus and we should not concentrate on the other game at Gwanzura.”

Murape said although Dynamos had fallen two points behind ZPC Kariba, he reckoned that the electricity men could just falter while they triumph and snatch the title on a blockbuster Sunday.

“What happened in the game that we lost to ZPC Kariba is normal in football but we have since put that behind us,” said Murape.
“We just have to get the right mentality back, so if we give up now then we are not worthy of champions.

“We owe it to Dynamos as an institution, we owe it to our fans and we owe it to ourselves to fight to the bitter end and show our character as fighters. It is not only a game that decides the league but it’s all the 30 matches.

“There have been cases before when we have won the league title on the last day and I foresee this happening again on Sunday. We just have to play for ourselves and I think ZPC will be playing for themselves too and I think CAPS United will be professional also to play for themselves so that we get a true champion.

“If ZPC win we will congratulate them and if they crumble at the last minute tough luck but all I am asking from my teammates is that we have to show our mental toughness right through to the end.”

Murape revealed that emotions had run high in the Dynamos camp after their morale-sapping defeat to ZPC.
“The dust has settled now and the most important thing is to have the spirit of togetherness and we have to show it through action and help Dynamos to achieve greatness.

“During the break we put little things and the big things together and I think we have learnt a lot going forward.
“It is important to learn from difficulties and rise up again when you have fallen and when we play How Mine there is need to show the character of the Dynamos of old that used to crush teams that were deemed small’’.

Murape felt Dynamos had paid the price for “being complacent along the way’’.
“I think one of the major lessons we have to learn is to have the same mentality that we use when play against CAPS United or Highlanders because we have tended to relax against smaller teams and that cost us crucial points because we won on reputation and not on the pitch’’.

Dynamos will head into Super Sunday’s battle without striker Rodreck Mutuma who will be serving suspension after accumulating three yellow cards.
ZPC will be without winger Tsepo Ranthokoane, who will also be serving suspension for having amassed three yellow cards but having already held CAPS United 1-1 on the opening day of the season, the leaders will be fancying their chances of taking four points from Makepekepe with a win this time.