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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter

AS the ultimate Battle of Zimbabwe looms, both Castle Lager Premiership football giants Dynamos and Highlanders have the same record in the league in the past nine weeks but the feeling and significance are not the same.

The two giants face-off at Barbourfields on Sunday with Highlanders coach Mandla “Lulu” Mpofu fully aware his future at the Bulawayo giants fully hinges on Sunday’s outcome.

It’s more than just a battle of wits and as far as it is just another league match that carries with it three points, for Mpofu, it means life or death.

Victory should be enough to buy him time at the helm of the iconic Bulawayo club.

Dynamos have won seven and drawn two games in their last nine outings while Bosso are also unbeaten in their last nine matches,  having posted just two victories and played six stalemates with their match against FC Platinum which was abandoned at 1-1 still to be determined in the boardroom.

DeMbare lead the standings with 30 points to their name, two above second-placed Chicken Inn while Bosso are ninth with 16 points.

With both clubs well-oiled by the hefty Sakunda Holdings sponsorship, Highlanders coach Mpofu is naturally under immense pressure from the ultra-demanding fans to deliver on Sunday.

The soft-spoken gaffer, who was one of the Warriors assistants in the interim set-up at the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon in January, often picks up his phone.

But he simply can’t answer this week. He was hurled with insults in Bosso’s last match against minnows Bulawayo Chiefs which ended in a 2-2 draw last Sunday.

He has been insulted in the streets and on social media for his failure to build a winning philosophy at the country’s oldest club.

His executive has his back but the situation is delicate with some social media sentiments claiming fans will walk out of the stadium in protest of his continued stay when the clock hits 70 minutes in Sunday’s battle against DeMbare. Mpofu’s future depends on this fixture to a large extent. A win against Dynamos, given the stakes and historical significance of this battle, will likely give Mpofu a kiss of life at the helm of Highlanders.

He remains the only coach to have fashioned out a winning formula against Dynamos in the local game since Joey “Mafero” Antipas upstaged them in early February.

Mpofu’s Highlanders beat Dynamos 1-0 in the Presidential Independence Cup final at Barbourfields on April 18 to take home an attractive prize money and the bragging rights.

And Sunday’s fixture is not only about the three points, beating Dynamos in a league match means a lot more than just that.

Mpofu’s Dynamos counterpart, Tonderai Ndiraya, is not free from pressure as well. His charges conceded a last minute goal in last Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Bulawayo City in a match they wasted many chances.

Ndiraya was at the end of the fans’ frustration at the National Sports Stadium and he will be out to also pick a revenge win over Bosso after that Presidential Independence Cup defeat.

The Bosso executive has since made a passionate appeal to their legion of fans to desist from hooliganism tendencies on Sunday while they appeared to suggest Mpofu could be shipped out should he lose against the Glamour Boys.

Bosso have also issued a passionate appeal to their fans to respect the ethos of the game and desist from violence.

“The Highlanders leadership would like to invite all its facets of fans to come in numbers with their families, friends and associates to support and encourage their team to complete a double within a month over their fiercest competitor in national football, Dynamos. This is also a passionate plea to our fans to be hospitable to our visitors and ourselves in hosting them in and outside the stadium and Bulawayo City in general.

“Passion, respect and love is the cornerstone of our 96 years of existence and should be cherished and remembered this Sunday as we host Dynamos in our first leg of the league.

“We note with concern a few individuals purporting to be football fans inciting violence in the name of Highlanders, a practice clearly not synonymous with our culture.

“This should be condemned with the contempt it deserves . . .

“Meanwhile, the Highlanders executive is seized with finding an immediate but lasting solution to the bad patch that the team is going through. We acknowledge the anxiety that this lean spell has caused to our members and fans and are equally concerned and want to promise you all that we are about to find and implement what we believe will heal us all and turn around the fortunes of this institution we call our heritage,” read the statement.