Glamour Chokers IT’S A LONELY WORLD . . . Dynamos skipper Murape Murape casts a lonely figure on the bench at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday, as his teammates and the coaching staff discuss their penalty shoot-out strategy during the NetOne OneWallet Cup final against Triangle. — (Picture by Munyaradzi Chamalimba)
IT’S A LONELY WORLD . . . Dynamos skipper Murape Murape casts a lonely figure on the bench at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday, as his teammates and the coaching staff discuss their penalty shoot-out strategy during the NetOne OneWallet Cup final against Triangle. — (Picture by Munyaradzi Chamalimba)

IT’S A LONELY WORLD . . . Dynamos skipper Murape Murape casts a lonely figure on the bench at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday, as his teammates and the coaching staff discuss their penalty shoot-out strategy during the NetOne OneWallet Cup final against Triangle. — (Picture by Munyaradzi Chamalimba)

Charles Mabika Sports Correspondent
DYNAMOS have always had a chronic weakness, when it comes to penalty shoot-outs, they once triggered a riot at Rufaro in 1973, forcing the Football Association of Rhodesia to scrape this dramatic way of deciding top-flight knock-out tournaments.
In FIVE penalty shoot-out contests, in the finals of knock-out tournaments spread over four decades, Dynamos have only triumphed ONCE, in the 1990 Natbrew-Zifa Cup, when they edged Highlanders to win the trophy.

Since their formation in 1963, DeMbare have only won FOUR out of TEN penalty shoot-outs which meant there was an 80 percent chance they would lose, on Sunday, when the tie spilled into the lottery. The Glamour Boys wrote another scary chapter in their horror penalty shoot-out manuscript, when they lost 3-4 to a brave Triangle, who played for about 50 minutes one-man short, in the final of the NetOne OneWallet Cup, at the National Sports Stadium.

Tafadzwa Rusike and Thomas Magorimbo were the fall guys after they missed from the spot in the shoot-out.

Ten years after their formation, the DeMbare shoot-out “curse” started in the 1973 Castle Cup final replay when they met Wankie at Rufaro.

After the first match had ended in a 2-2 draw, a replay was held and again, the tie ended in a 3-3 draw, with the Glamour Boys’ devastating left winger, Ernest “Nyamuzihwa” Kamba’s hat-trick cancelling out the coalminers’ strikes from Twyman Ncube (2) and Roderick Simwanza.

Extra time yielded no winner and when the dreaded shoot-out began, Wankie took the lead through Ncube and Dynamos replied through playmaker and penalty specialist, George “Mastermind” Shaya.

Chipangano’s little forward, Ken Fulton, then made it 2-1 before Kamba equalised for his side from the spot. Hard-working midfielder Barry Daka thrust Wankie ahead and Dynamos attacking midfielder, David Madondo, made it 3-3.

It was 5 -5 at the end of the initial five penalties and the lottery spilled into sudden death.

Big Nyaro Mumba then pushed Wankie ahead, making it 6-5. Up stepped bearded Dynamos’ centre-back, David Phiri, who had turned on a man-of-the-match performance for his team, to try and keep his side in the contest.

But Phiri blazed his effort over the bar, with Wankie’s ’keeper, Posani Sibanda, sprawled on the floor and the coalminers had won the country’s premier knock-out tournament.

Then, in an instant, all hell broke loose as it dawned on the thousands of DeMbare fans that their dream had been shattered.

Riots broke out at the stadium and the fans found themselves engaged in running battles with the police, outside the stadium, with the law enforcement agents firing teargas canisters in a bid to control the marauding supporters and quell the disturbances. A lot of damage was done and a number of cars were smashed as hooligans ran amok.

The Football Association of Rhodesia banned penalty shoot-outs, with immediate effect, a couple of days later during a disciplinary committee hearing. For seven years penalty shoot-outs were outlawed from our game and only restored after the nation’s re-admittance into international football by FIFA following Zimbabwe’s Independence in 1980. Since then, Dynamos have featured in NINE more shoot-outs and have only been successful FOUR times.

They triumphed in the 1990 Natbrew-Zifa Cup after beating arch-rivals, Highlanders 4-2 on penalties, at the National Sports Stadium, with their ’keeper, Peter “Chops” Fanwell, saving two penalties. In 2004, Dynamos beat their city rivals, CAPS United, in the Independence Cup semi-final 3-2, with Edmore Mufema, Givemore Manuella and Lenny Gwata’s efforts eking out a triumph for them.

Their remaining two victories in shoot-outs were in 2011, against Motor Action in the Independence Cup semi-final, and 2012 Mbada Diamonds first round tie against Quelaton.

Dynamos counted their second loss in shoot-outs to Bosso in the 2001 Independence Cup final (2-3) at the National Sports Stadium.

Mwana Africa knocked out the Glamour Boys 4-3 on penalties in the 2004 zifa Unity Cup first round before Highlanders edged them again (4-2) in the 2011 Independence Cup final at Rufaro.

This year, the Glamour Boys were stunned by FC Platinum in a penalty shoot-out in the Independence Cup final before Sunday’s nerve-wrecking loss to the Sugar Sugar Boys.

Former Dynamos coach David “Yogi” Mandigora, a star player for the Glamour Boys in his prime, scoffed at the claims of his team being “cursed”.

“I think it’s probably complacency that always leads to us failing in the penalty shoot-outs,” said Mandigora. “Like on Sunday, I think our players underestimated Triangle United and thought we’d win in regulation time.

“So the advent of a shoot-out was unexpected and all of a sudden, the players put themselves under pressure. You could see that there was more pressure on our players than Triangle’s.”

One of the country’s finest penalty takers, former CAPS United and Black Rhinos midfielder, Stanford “Stix” Mtizwa, said taking a spot kick needs maximum concentration.

“When you step up to take a penalty kick, never look into the eyes of the opposition ’keeper . . . never do that because somehow, that will put you off-track. You must also never change your mind at the last moment. If you’ve decided to pick your spot to the left side of the ’keeper, do just that!” he said.

One thing is for sure — the next time Dynamos feature in a knock-out tournament, they will stretch to their elastic limits to ensure the tie does not spill into a lottery shoot-out.

Even the Dynamos fans know that.

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