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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
THE fury that has been simmering in the hearts of CAPS United fans finally exploded at Rufaro yesterday, triggering some ugly scenes, after the crippled Green Machine misfired once again.
Sadly, the club president Twine Phiri was not there to see for himself the raging anger that has been bubbling in the hearts of those who pay their hard-earned cash to back this team.

And why they believe their loyalty is being abused by those who are leading their club.
Taurai Mangwiro was the big target of those who turned rebellious at Rufaro and, on the evidence of what unfolded yesterday, it’s hard to see the fractious and poisonous relationship between the coach and the fans being mended and the two working as partners again.

But Phiri, the club owner, should also look at this unrest as a rebellion directed at him because, as the boss, the buck stops with him and CAPS United have carried a heavy load, in recent weeks, with the internal issues in their camp weighing down heavily on the players.

Given what happened at Mandava in the past two weeks, including a bizarre six-goal mauling in the ZNA Charity Shield and elimination from the Chibuku Super Cup, one would have expected Phiri to show leadership qualities by coming to Rufaro yesterday to show his grieving Green Machine family that they were together at this trying time for the club.

But he wasn’t there and CAPS United have, in recent weeks, looked a club deserted by its leadership and the camaraderie, which was there for everyone to see at the beginning with Lewis Uriri bringing his entire family to their home matches, has long vanished.

Instead, we have a club whose leadership, or lack of it, has become a favourite subject for the media, with the toxic relationship in the board being laid bare by the newspapers just about every day adding to the negativity, which keeps stalking the team now, and increasing the weight of the baggage that the players have to carry on the pitch.

The results on Saturday had suited CAPS United, given them a chance to blow wind into the sails of their championship race, needing just to win at home, against a How Mine that was torn apart by Highlanders in their last game, to move within joint second, with ZPC Kariba, in the marathon.

But, as has always been the case this year when the Green Machine have been handed a golden opportunity to either close the gap or even go top of the league, they fluffed their chance, melting under pressure and showing once again that their character remains questionable.

They were handed a chance to beat Shabanie and go top of the table but, after their boat was rocked by a rebellion in which Ronald Pfumbidzai and Stephen Makatuka refused to travel to Zvishavane because the club hadn’t honoured their part of the bargain in payments due to them, CAPS United could not score and a goalless draw wasn’t good enough.

A trip to Shabanie has come to represent a bad omen for the Green Machine in the past two years.
A crippling player strike in October last year, ahead of the trip to Zvishavane, wrecked havoc in their preparations, at a time when they had another opportunity to boost their championship drive, and the Green Machine crashed to a 1-3 defeat at the hands of Shabanie.

Their championship drive lost direction, from that point onwards, and Mangwiro quit, before he was persuaded to change his decision, but a 1-4 defeat, at the hands of Black Mambas, two games later, captured the magnitude of the challenges that were facing the team, and ended their hopes.

Since their trip to Shabanie this year, when the first signs of the problems in their camp came to light with Pfumbidzai and Makatuka staging their rebellion, CAPS United have gone six games — 540 minutes of action — WITHOUT SCORING A GOAL in both League and Cup games.

The Shabanie game ended goalless, they won their league match against Chapungu 1-0 courtesy of an own goal by the airmen’s Charles Mativenga, they were held to a goalless draw by Bantu Rovers, lost 0-6 to FC Platinum in the Charity Shield, lost 0-1 to the same opponents in the Chibuku Super Cup quarter-finals and drew 0-0 against How Mine yesterday.

Just before Pfumbidzai and Makatuka staged their protest, which lifted the lid on the in-house challenges shaking the Green Machine, CAPS United had scored in each of their nine consecutive games — EIGHT LEAGUE AND ONE CUP — winning SEVEN games, including FOUR on the trot, drawing one and losing another in their back-to-back ties against Dynamos.

Surely, questions should be asked how a team that was scoring in every game can suddenly lose that goal-scoring touch, once two defenders decided not to board the bus and travel to Shabanie for a league match, and since then they have now gone half-a-dozen games without scoring a goal.

Since the players almost boycotted the trip to Bulawayo for a date against Bantu Rovers, CAPS United have drawn two and lost two but, crucially, they have failed to win in four games and, incredibly, failed to even score a goal, conceding seven along the way.

Mangwiro has become a target for the fans because they feel he has failed to provide a solution to their woes, and they are right to say that, but there is need for the supporters to also ask why the same coach was successful, getting the results and goals, before the club’s financial challenges caught up with them.

CAPS United’s next seven league games — away to Black Rhinos, then home to Highlanders, away to Triangle, home to FC Platinum, away to Buffaloes, home to Harare City and away to ZPC Kariba — might be tricky but they don’t represent a mission as impossible as expecting that the players will wake up today to find that their September salaries have been credited to their bank accounts.

But, when a team is failing to score in six straight games, when it is refusing to confront the challenges that are weighing it down, when there is rebellion among their fans, when the leadership is nowhere to be seen, even a home tie against How Mine, as shown yesterday, can be a tough one.