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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
IN  the end they chose SUBMISSION, as a mark of APPRECIATION, went for REJECTION as a way of displaying both their AFFECTION for good football and their FRUSTRATION it hadn’t come from their men.

And, ultimately, they settled for CELEBRATION, as a way of REFLECTION, of the DEMOLITION their troops had suffered in what used to be their Theatre of Dreams.

For all the pain that had been inflicted on their innocent souls by these pretenders, disguised as Glamour Boys, and by these misfits in blue-and-white borrowed robes masquerading as Dynamos players, the DeMbare fans still found a way to see a rainbow of light in the gloom that descended on Rufaro on Sunday.

A cruel reminder to these masses of DeMbare fans of a time when their team used to be the dominant force on the domestic football scene before it was reduced into this shell by a combination of factors that will require all the pages of this newspaper to try and analyse.

Back in the days when the Glamour Boys could go to Mandava, as was the case in that spectacular smash-and-grab mission in 2011 and, somehow, find a way to spoil what had been set as a stage for the coronation of these platinum miners as the first club from outside Harare and Bulawayo to be crowned champions in 45 years.

When Callisto Pasuwa would lead them to four straight league championships, following in the tradition of his mentor, Sunday Chidzambwa, a dynasty and empire which is hard to believe ever existed when one now looks at the wreckage of what remains of these Glamour Boys.

In the special year that marks the 20th anniversary of their remarkable romance with the CAF Champions League, which took them to within one win of being crowned champions of Africa, it’s astonishing how these Glamour Boys have disintegrated this much, in such a short time, to become such a laughing stock.

In the special year that marks the 10th anniversary of their march into the semi-finals of the CAF Champions League in 2008, it’s mind-blowing how these Glamour Boys have fallen from grace, so fast, they have become an insult to the profile, based on success, which previous generations built over the years.

Things have got so bad that, on Sunday at Rufaro, some of their long-suffering fans ended up being forced to cheer the few occasions when one of their men completed a pass to his teammate or when one of them found a way to control the ball the right way.

Where there used to be a giant, all that is now left is a shadow, where there used to be a fighting machine, all that is left is a crumbling empire, where there used to be potency, all that is left is impotency, and where there used to be class, all that is left is mediocrity.

At least, there was some class from their ranks on Sunday.

And it did not come from those who were pretending to do a shift, fighting as if they were Glamour Boys in a grand betrayal of this institution’s history, while all they could do was huff and puff their way to one-and-half hours of a display so lifeless it could probably not have been acceptable even if they were playing for Karoi United or Chegutu Pirates.

Instead, the class came from the terraces where their fans, who know a good football team when they see one, having for years been fed on a regular dosage of the beautiful side of this game, decided to give FC Platinum a standing ovation for the way they had tamed these misfits in blue-and-white colours.

It was a grand submission, the acceptance that times have changed, the brutal acknowledgement that a vast gap now existed between their men and the champions, the admission that the real power now resided away from their territory, but somewhere in the platinum mines of this country.

The approval of a football project that is now beginning to impose itself on the domestic front, now that the leadership, the players and the coaches have the confidence that came with skipping that final hurdle and becoming champions last year, and the recognition that something beautiful is happening in Zvishavane.

They had come in their numbers, probably fooled by their team’s victory over Bulawayo Chiefs, and desperate to see how their troops would stand the test against the champions and they had been in good voice from the word go as they tried to inspire their men.

But all their expectations were deflated in just 17 minutes, the time it took Soccer Star of the Year Rodwell Chinyengetere to score his brace, including a beauty of a second goal that was struck with perfection as the goal-scoring midfielder gave it both a curl and power to beat the goalkeeper.

“This game is a motivational game for us, playing against Dynamos despite their previous results just motivates you,’’ Chinyengetere had said in the countdown to this game.

“We are prepared and raring to go, we respect them, but we want points from them.

“I wanted to come back and play this game, playing against Dynamos is what every player wants to do and definitely I am prepared to play them.’’

The Dynamos that Chinyengetere was probably talking about is not the DeMbare which appeared at Rufaro on Sunday, because apart from those people carrying the name and wearing the colours of the Glamour Boys, they were just a bunch of ordinary footballers who were so poor it was a shame they even carried expectations of beating the champions.

Some will say that a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the champions isn’t a disaster, which probably is true in a way.

But, those who watched this game will tell you that the scoreline barely told the story of the way FC Platinum dominated and the chances they created to have gone home with a scoreline which would have been three times the goals they scored that afternoon.

The difference on class was so huge that even the DeMbare fans noticed it and, to their eternal credit, they found time to salute the victorious platinum miners whose vision, and financial muscle, is now making a mockery of clubs like Dynamos, who remain trapped in the past.

Not even a poor pitch at Rufaro could stop these platinum miners from turning on a beautiful show.

And these DeMbare misfits have now lost to CAPS United, Highlanders, FC Platinum and Ngezi Platinum already this season, and if that doesn’t tell you they are average, then nothing probably will.