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Bothwell Mahlengwe Sports Correspondent—
IN a brutal marathon, like the league championship in football, it’s all winners, about champions and that’s why the game always knights those who come first. Brazil are known around the world for winning the World Cup five times. Very few people, save for the Dutch themselves, remember that Holland lost three times in the final of the World Cup.

It’s all about the gold that comes with being champions — nothing more and nothing less.

Even in the Olympics, the nation that wins one gold is placed higher, on the rankings, than the one that has won 50 silver medals.

That’s the brutality of professional sport and football fans say Liverpool haven’t been champions since 1990, very few talk about when they came second.

Dynamos successfully defended their league title this year, and won it for the fourth straight time, while ZPC Kariba finished second.

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As always, it came to the time of rewarding the top performers for the year.

The panellists sat and chose the country’s best 11 players. At the same time, they picked the Coach of the Year and the Referee of the Year.

For the top 11 players and, eventually, the Soccer Star of the Year, it is always open to debate because it’s subjective and non-scientific.

For that reason, we can give the panel the benefit of the doubt and whatever they decide we are forced to accept whether we agree or we don’t.

That’s unlike the Coach of the Year award, which is simply about the games and the trophies the coach’s team won that year.

In short, this one is scientific, simple and straight forward.

What is surprising is that with all the statistics pointing to Pasuwa being Coach of the Year, the title went to Saul Chaminuka.

When did we start rewarding coaches for trying when those who actually did it are right there?

The statistics are there to show that Pasuwa produced better results than Chaminuka, whichever way one might want to look at it.

Chaminuka had the best three players, which could be four or five if you add Pride Tafirenyika, who fell foul of the cards, and Raphael Manuwire, who was injured when he was the best player around.

A coach with the best goalkeeper (Tendai Hove), best defender (Dennis Dauda), best midfielders (Manuwire and Tafirenyika) and best striker (Limited Chikafa) should win the championship.

Or, maybe, just one trophy.

If he fails, then someone, with an inferior crop of players but with better coaching qualities, did a better job.

That man, to me, is Pasuwa.

The outgoing DeMbare coach had the most points in the league and that’s why Dynamos were crowned champions.

Secondly, Pasuwa won 16 games in the league, which was the highest number of matches won by a coach in the 2014 PSL season.

Thirdly, Pasuwa won four trophies in the 2014 PSL season, again which was the highest number by any coach.

He was runner-up in two competitions, losing on penalties in both of them.

To paint a clearer picture, Pasuwa participated in five finals of the six competitions we had this season.

It is very clear that Chaminuka didn’t win any trophy this season.

He was nowhere near the podium for the whole of the 2014 soccer season.

How then do we explain rewarding a coach who didn’t win anything the whole year and ignoring one who won four trophies, including the league championship, the one who refused to choke when the pressure rose?

This is daylight robbery.

Just like the top goal scorer award, you don’t reward the guy who hit the woodwork the most, even if he was playing for a team considered to be inferior than the other side.

You reward the guy who hit the nets the most.

It’s all about statistics.

Chaminuka almost won the championship but the reality is he didn’t.

He is like the scorer who hit the woodwork, the man who almost scored, but didn’t.

Pasuwa scored the goal.

He won the championship.

Some might argue that Chaminuka did well with an unknown team straight from Division One playing away from their Kariba base all season.

Though this is actually true, I feel it actually aided to his second position on the log.

One, as coach of a small team, Chaminuka didn’t have the pressure to win anything this season.

His main worry was to survive relegation in the team’s maiden season in the PSL.

Two, Chaminuka and his players are not new to the PSL.

In fact, his team was the one with most PSL veterans in the league.

The bulk of his players were experienced and battle-hardened.

Three, there was no pressure of playing at home with a team made up of players who were not from Kariba.

They were playing their home games at “home” since about 75 percent of their players are from the capital.

It’s obvious that they were going to meet some resistance from the Kariba community because the only thing they could associate with was the name ZPC Kariba only.

Four, the club had the financial stability that most teams in the PSL didn’t have.

Five, the so-called “always on the road” made bonding easier for the team since they were forced to be together most of the times.

I know the panellists know in their hearts that they blundered and, if possible, they should humbly correct it — if not now, then in the future.

Just like in the English Premier League, the coach of the month is won by the coach whose team has the best statistics. The same should apply here.

That they made their choices before the season ended makes their choices suspect and debatable.

For the past four seasons, the final matches of the season have had a huge bearing on the title race.

They should have realised that by now and revised the timing of their selection to after the curtain had come down.

We should be asking ourselves questions today.

Pasuwa has just done something that no coach has done, in 52 years, why then do we feel that it wasn’t special for him to be named Coach of the Year?

He has won the last four league titles and only been named Coach of the Year once!