Zimpapers Logo

Ronald Pfumbidzai

Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor—

CHAMPIONS CAPS United swept the board at the annual prize-giving ceremony to honour domestic football’s outstanding individuals last Friday night, but as the dust begins to settle, it’s emerging that some members of the triumphant Green Machine might have received a raw deal.Makepekepe provided the Soccer Star of the Year, which was won by roving right-back Hardlife Zvirekwi, and the second best player of the campaign ageless forward Leonard Tsipa, while trailblazer Lloyd Chitembwe, the first man to win the league title at CAPS United both as a player and coach, deservedly walked away with the Coach of the Year award.

Zvirekwi became the first CAPS United player in 11 years to be crowned Soccer Star of the Year, with the Warriors star, a member of the national team that ended a decade of waiting for a return to the Nations Cup finals, becoming the seventh player from the Green Machine stable to be honoured as the best player in the domestic Premiership.

Shacky Tauro, Stanley Ndunduma, George Nechironga, Stewart Murisa, Energy Murambadoro, Cephas Chimedza and Joseph Kamwendo are the other CAPS United players who were honoured as the Soccer Stars of the Year.

The prestigious award has had its fair share of controversy, notably in 1989 when Masimba Dinyero somehow beat odds-on favourite Stanford “Stix” Mtizwa, to be crowned Soccer Star of the Year and in 1997 when Walter Chuma controversially beat Tauya Murewa for the award leading to a backlash that forced the sponsors to temporarily shelve the event.

While, generally, the choices made by those who voted for the 2016 Soccer Stars of the Year have been welcomed by the fans, with only the absence of Highlanders’ Bruce Kangwa being a major talking point, a closer analysis of the outcome of the vote — especially for the top awards — suggests other players might have received a raw deal.

Kangwa’s seven league goals came in just four months of the season, before he embarked on his adventure in Tanzania, and given that Tsipa’s cause — to knock on the doors of the biggest award of the night, the Soccer Star of the Year — was aided, in a big way, by the 11 goals he scored all season, the former Highlanders star has every right to feel aggrieved not to even make it among the best XI.

Playing in a new role as an out-and-out forward, after being converted from his traditional left-back role by Dutch coach Elroy Akbay, Kangwa was voted the Premiership’s Player of the Month for April, May and June, almost half of the seven months of the top-flight league’s season, and how he failed to make the cut, to get a spot among the best XI players, remains a mystery.

And, in a season where Gift Mbweti also largely owed his presence on the Soccer Stars of the Year calendar for the nine goals he scored, all season for Hwange, Kangwa has a right to feel aggrieved that his seven goals, in just a few months of the season, and three consecutive Player of the Month awards, were not enough to win him a place on the calendar.

With a player needing, at least, 10 league games to qualify for selection, Kangwa had made the cut to be considered among the Soccer Stars of the Year.

But Kangwa isn’t alone among those who might be feeling short-changed this season.

Ronald Pfumbidzai was named among the best XI players, and deservedly so, after his best season for CAPS United in which his cultured left foot made as huge an impact, in the club’s success, as Tsipa’s goals and Zvirekwi’s immense contribution down the other left channel.

Zvirekwi won the Soccer Star of the Year, backed by his outstanding performance for Makepekepe, in which he provided five assists (in the 1-0 win over Dynamos at Rufaro, the 1-2 defeat at the hands of How Mine at Luveve, the 2-2 draw against ZPC Kariba at Rufaro, the 2-0 win over Tsholotsho and the 3-3 draw against DeMbare at the National Sports Stadium).

That Zvirekwi was consistent and influential, in the CAPS United cause, is not even questionable and although the rules and regulations limit the selectors to what players do, in the Premiership race, it’s known that a player’s performance for the Warriors always plays on the minds of the panel that votes and has a big influence.

But, if Zvirekwi’s five assists, in the 28 matches he played for the Green Machine, and a couple of games he also featured for the Warriors, was good enough to make him the number one player on the domestic front, why then did Pfumbidzai fail to make it among the top three players or, as some are arguing, even win the Soccer Star of the Year award?

After all, Pfumbidzai even played a part in the Warriors’ 2017 Nations Cup campaign when he featured for them in the 2-1 away win over Malawi in Blantyre which laid the foundation for the team’s successful campaign.

While Zvirekwi provided five assists for CAPS United in the league, this season, Pfumbidzai provided 19 assists — almost four times more than his teammate on the other flank — in the 25 games he played over 2 240 minutes for the Green Machine.

His assists came in goals that helped CAPS United win 13 matches, including providing ALL the three assists for the Green Machine in their last three games which Makepekepe won 1-0 against Harare City, Ngezi Platinum and Chapungu which, if the result had not gone in their favour, would have seen them fall short in their quest for the league championship.

Pfumbidzai provided the goal for Tsipa in the 1-0 win over Harare City in Week 28, provided the goal for Simba Nhivi in the 1-0 win over Ngezi Platinum at the National Sports Stadium in Week 29 and then, crucially, provided the goal for Nhivi in the 1-0 win over Chapungu at Ascot in Week 30.

He also provided all the three assists in the dramatic 3-2 home victory over How Mine, a result that coach Lloyd Chitembwe says was the most important for his team this season, with Dominic Chungwa scoring a last-gasp winner while Tsipa and Dennis Dauda were also on target.

Pfumbidzai also provided another crucial assist, in the 2-1 win over Triangle at Gibbo, with Kudzi Nyamupfukudza scoring an 85th minute winner, and provided the assist for Tsipa to get a 90th minute equaliser in the 2-2 draw against ZPC Kariba at Rufaro.

He also provided both assists for Tsipa and Abbas Amidu’s goals in the 2-1 win over Chicken Inn in Bulawayo.

But the defining image of his remarkable cocktail of assists this season will always remain that picture of him, showing intense concentration, in the last-minute of the Harare Derby at the National Sports Stadium, as he prepared to whip in a beauty from a corner which was met by Dauda as CAPS United completed an incredible comeback from three goals down to tie the game 3-3.

Somehow, for all his heroics, he didn’t make the Top Three among the Best XI when his contribution was even good enough to win him the Soccer Star of the Year award.

Even Simba Nhivi, who played 27 matches and put in 2 154 minutes, will consider himself unlucky not to make it among the top XI given six of his seven goals came in a winning cause for the Green Machine, including the final two matches of the season, while the seventh rescued a point at Ngezi Platinum.

CAPS United Statistics (Compiled in collaboration with

Andrew Rusike of Andysh Consultancy)

Games won by more than Two clear goals, or more, (5) — Chapungu 3-0, Mutare City 4-1 Mutare City 2-0, Tsholotsho 2-0, Border Strikers 3-1

Games won by one goal margins (13) — Harare City 2-1 and 1-0, Dynamos 1-0, Border Strikers 1-0 Chicken Inn 2-1 and 1-0, Bulawayo City 2-1, Highlanders 1-0, Tsholotsho 1-0, How Mine 3-2, Triangle FC. 2-1, Ngezi Platinum 1-0 Chapungu 1-0.

Games ended in a scoring draws (4) — Ngezi Platinum 1-1, ZPC Kariba 2-2, Hwange 1-1, Dynamos 3-3

Games played to a goalless draw (5) — Triangle, FC Platinum-twice, Hwange, ZPC Kariba Games lost by a single goal 2 How Mine 1-2, Highlanders 0-1

Games lost by more than one goal (1) — Bulawayo City 1-3

Games in which CAPS United failed to score (6) — 5 draws and a 1-0 loss to Highlanders

Games in which CAPS United scored, at least, a goal (24) — The Green Machine scored, at least, a goal in 24 matches, doing so in eight consecutive games from Matchday 1 to Matchday 8, and in all the last six matches of the season from Matchday 25 to 30

Number of games in which CAPS Utd kept a clean sheet (16) — 11 wins and 5 draws

CAPS United lost only ONE game in second half of the season – going down 1-3 to Bulawayo City at Barbourfields

All the THREE games which CAPS United lost were in Bulawayo — 1-2 against How Mine; 0-1 against Highlanders and 1-3 against Bulawayo City

CAPS United are the FIRST Harare side to be champions after playing 13 games away from the capital