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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor

THE beast whose sons have won six of the past nine league titles — in a ruthless domination of the domestic football landscape — has erected three tough hurdles which CAPS United must clear to realise their dreams of becoming champions.The Green Machine, who assumed leadership of the championship race after an impressive 3-1 victory in Beitbridge, are making their biggest challenge for the biggest prize in Zimbabwe football since being crowned champions in 2005.

CAPS United are the only club, among the three fighting for the title who include FC Platinum and Highlanders, who have their fate in their hands.But that’s easier said than done.

For CAPS United have a number of tough hurdles, which will test them to the limit, which they must clear before they can realise their dream of winning an overdue fifth league title, in their history and a third championship gong since the turn of the millennium.

Success this year will provide the Green Machine with a fitting way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that year, in 1996, when coach Steve “The Dude” Kwashi and his steamrolling team powered to the club’s first post-independence championship to end 17 years of waiting for the big prize.

CAPS United will plunge into the Harare Derby showdown on Sunday against their biggest rivals, Dynamos, at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday — the first of their duels against three teams under the guidance of Glamour Boys in what should be an intriguing phase of their campaign.

The Green Machine might have ended Dynamos’ dominance over them in the league this year after beating Dynamos at Rufaro in their first league meeting this year, but they know of the threat their rivals possess.

Some even believe the ailing giants could just rise in the Harare Derby just to derail Makepekepe’s campaign and give their fans, who have suffered considerably this season, something to cheer their deflated spirits.

After the duel against DeMbare, where CAPS United will be without the country’s leading goal-scorer Leonard Tsipa, suspended after picking a third yellow card in Beitbridge, CAPS United will take on a Harare City side coached by another championship-winning Dynamos son Moses Chunga at Rufaro.

Harare City derailed FC Platinum’s quest for a maiden league title and the bragging rights that could come with becoming the first club in independent Zimbabwe from outside the country’s two main cities of Harare and Bulawayo to be crowned champions after they beat Norman Mapeza’s men 2-1 at Rufaro.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of that landmark triumph when St Paul’s Musami won the league championship in 1966 and half-a-century later they remain the only club from outside Harare and Bulawayo to be crowned champions of Zimbabwe football.

After their date against Chunga’s men, CAPS United will have another duel with another former Dynamos coach, Tonderai Ndiraya, with Ngezi Platinum — who held Makepekepe to a draw in Mhondoro after striking late in their contest — coming to Harare in the penultimate game of the season.

The Green Machine will then close their campaign in Gweru against Chapungu.

But, as they focus on the Harare Derby on Sunday, it is their duels against the sons of the beast, which has produced coaches who have won six of the last nine championship battles — and five of the last six league titles — which are provoking a lot of debate on the domestic football scene.

Lloyd Mutasa, who has endured a difficult spell in charge of a Dynamos side long on history, but significantly short on quality, having been thrust into the hot seat to cast some light on the darkness inflicted by that horrible experimentation with a Portuguese comedian-disguised-as-a-football coach, is yet to win the league title.

But those who believe in him say he laid the foundation for the DeMbare side that won four league titles on the trot under the guidance of Callisto Pasuwa and while his team’s showing in big matches so far has fallen short of expectations some still carry memories of that afternoon when his men crushed Algerian side MC Alger 4-1 in the CAF Champions League tie at Rufaro in March 2011.

A super-charged Dynamos overpowered the Algerians on an afternoon that also brought to fore the talents of Denver Mukamba, who scored a beauty and Devon Chafa, who has now switched sides after finding refugee in the CAPS United camp while old warhorse Desmond Maringwa pulled the strings in midfield.

After the Harare Derby on Sunday, CAPS then face Chunga who won the league championship with Gunners in 2009 before taking on Ndiraya who has stabilised the Ngezi Platinum ship.