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LOYAL BAND . . . Members of the Bulawayo Chapter of the Dynamos Supporters’ Club publicly show their support for Callisto Pasuwa at Mandava as DeMbare were being beaten by FC Platinum

Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
CALLISTO PASUWA is chasing a special place in the history books of domestic football as the first coach to win a hattrick of Premiership league titles in a landmark year in which Dynamos are marking their Golden Jubilee.
The DeMbare gaffer cleared a tough hurdle at Barbourfields on Sunday when he guided his team to a priceless 1-0 win over Highlanders, his first victory over Bosso in the City of Kings and his second in five league matches, to power his team to the top of the championship race.
With just four games to play, the Glamour Boys have their fate in their hands although nothing can be guaranteed, for now, in a battlefield littered with landmines where plucky opponents like Triangle and Chicken Inn could destroy their dreams of winning the championship again.

The DeMbare leadership desperately want their team to win the championship, to put a gloss on their Golden Jubilee celebrations, which have been muted so far, and to mark the 50th anniversary of their first league title in 1963, with another championship success story.
There have been 50 league titles, which have been won since the first national championship was held in this country in 1962 with Bulawayo Rovers winning the inaugural race, but during that half-century of battles, no coach has won a hattrick of crowns in the marathon.

Shepherd Murape won back-to-back league titles with Dynamos in ‘80 and ‘81 before leaving the club, the following year after being appointed national team coach and the Glamour Boys were under the guidance of different coaches, who included Ernest kamba, Trevor Carelse-Juul and David Madondo, when they won the other two championships in ‘82 and ‘83.

Sunday Chidzambwa, the most successful coach in the history of Zimbabwean football, also won back-to-back league titles in ’94 and ’95 while Rahman Gumbo also achieved that feat when he led Highlanders to league titles in successive seasons in ’99 and 2000.

He left the Bulawayo giants in June 2001, to join CAPS United, and British expatriate Eddie May arrived to revive a season, which had stalled, and Bosso were crowned champions for the third straight year, matching the three-peat success story written by bitter rivals Dynamos between ’80 and ’82.

May defended Bosso’s crown, in 2003, and the Bulawayo giants made it four league titles in four seasons to equal the record that had been set by Dynamos when they won the championship from ’80 to ’83.

Charles Mhlauri was the next coach to win back-to-back league titles when he led a powerful Green Machine to the Promised Land in 2004, winning the championship by a record points tally in a 30-game season, before CAPS United successfully defended their crown the following year after edging a spirited Masvingo United on the final day of the season.

Seven years later, Pasuwa joined the exclusive club of coaches who have won back-to-back league titles in the domestic Premiership when DeMbare defended their crown last year, after a tight race that went all the wire with the Harare giants winning the marathon by virtue of a superior goal difference.

Now, the DeMbare coach is on the threshold of carving his name in the history books of local football if he can successfully negotiate the dangerous potholes that lie in ambush, in four games that will test his men to the limit, where a point dropped could have fatal consequences in their quest to be champions for the third straight year.

While Dynamos and Highlanders have won the league championship in three seasons on the trot, in the past, with the Glamour Boys doing it at the turn of the millennium and Bosso coming good at the turn of the millennium, the two giants were under the guidance of different coaches as they wrote their grand success stories.

In contrast, Pasuwa has the chance to become the first coach on the domestic front to guide his team to a hattrick of league titles, in a season in which he has been tested to the limit and pressure has been applied on the club’s leadership, when days were dark, for them to push him out of the job.

The chorus for his dismissal even grew louder when DeMbare were humiliated 2-4 in Hwange, dumped out of the Mbada Diamonds Cup by How Mine at home and then lost, for the first time, in a match against FC Platinum but the Bulawayo Chapter of the club’s national supporters’ club stood by their man, in the pouring rain, and unveiled banners with messages of support in the gloom of the defeat at Mandava.

Dynamos secretary-general, Webster Chikengezha, told The Herald yesterday that they always believed in Pasuwa and they would be thrilled if their young coach can make history by becoming the first local coach to win three straight league championships.

“Obviously, we will be delighted if he can do it because that has been our priority since day one, to win the championship, and the guys are motivated to do it for the club and their fans and while there is still a lot of work to be done, we are ready to face the challenges,” said Chikengezha.

“The game in Bulawayo was important, because we had to do well, and I went into camp with the boys, slept with them, ate what they were eating, just to make them understand that we were together in this battle and I think it worked wonders for team morale and we were rewarded with a great victory.

“It will be good if we can win a third straight title, in the year that we are celebrating our 50th anniversary, and be champions in the year that our national association is also marking its 50th anniversary and you have to remember that this year also marks the 50th anniversary of the year when we won our first league title in 1963.

“It will also be good if the coach can make history and we will talk to our sponsors to see if we can honour him, in a special way, for that because it’s not every year that such a special thing happens and we have to honour it when it happens.”