Worst Dynamos in a decade? David Mandigora
David Mandigora

David Mandigora

Tedious Manyepo Sports Reporter
PREMIERSHIP giants Dynamos are set to end the season outside the top two in the championship race for the first time in a decade. They will also complete a miserable season in which, for the first time in six years, they have not played in a cup final. Since coach David “Yogi” Mandigora ended their 10-year wait for the league title in 2007, the Glamour Boys have never ended the season outside the top two in the championship race.

Between 2008 and 2010, they settled for second place behind Gunners, Monomotapa and Motor Action. And, in 2011, they struck gold when Callisto Pasuwa came on board to coach them and for the next four years, they dominated the domestic football landscape.

With Chicken Inn beating Dembare to the race last season, the Harare giants settled for silver once again. But along the way they had also won a number of trophies.

However, it’s all gloomy this year and there are some who are even suggesting this could be the worst DeMbare team in the past decade. Earlier this year, they parted ways with Portuguese coach Paulo Jorge Silva after a string of poor results, including losses to CAPS United and Highlanders for the first time in seven and 10 years respectively.

Dynamos currently sit on fourth place on the table with 38 points, 13 behind log leaders FC Platinum, with only 15 points still to play for. Team manager Richard Chihoro, who was one of the assistants to Mandigora in 2007, has also acknowledged that the current Dynamos side lacks the same character which powered them to glory back then.

“Dynamos is a big institution and seeing us in a position where we are at the moment is just unacceptable,” he said. “For the past 10 years we have been quiet a force, either forcing opponents to the wire or grabbing the title on the last day of the marathon.

“We have also been winning cup competitions and pulling huge crowds over the years. “It’s unfortunate this year we have not been performing to our standards. “We really wanted to perform better than what we have been doing.

“Hopefully, we will end the season on a high. We are virtually out of the league reckoning and we were knocked out of all cup competitions in the early stages.

“We have some good players like Denver (Mukamba) and Takunda (Sadiki) but we could not win matches even in those ties which we could have easily won. It was just unfortunate.”

Dynamos were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Commander ZNA Charities Shield by ZPC Kariba in March before they were knocked out of the Independence Cup in the semi-finals by Chicken Inn.

They also found the going tough in the Chibuku Super Cup, losing on penalties to How Mine and missing the chance to play continental football next season. Assistant coach Murape Murape recently questioned the quality of players in the side.

What DeMbare fans won’t like to be reminded about

  • Losing back-to-back matches to Highlanders in the league for the first time in 10 years.
  • Losing to CAPS United, in a league match, for the first time in seven years and it could be back-to-back defeats two weeks from now.
  • Losing back-to-back matches, in the league to FC Platinum for the first time

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