Zimpapers Logo

Taurai Mangwiro

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
CAPS United gaffer Taurai Mangwiro, a target of physical threats from some of the club’s unruly fans ahead of his side’s Castle Lager blockbuster Super Sunday showdown with leaders ZPC Kariba, will miss the encounter as he will be away in Cameroon on FIFA coaching business. The Green Machine, out of the running for the championship but eager to end the season on a winning note and seal their top four finish, face high-riding ZPC Kariba at Gwanzura, the same day that champions Dynamos host How Mine at the National Sports Stadium.

Dynamos fans, who saw their team’s title hopes severely dented by the 2-1 defeat they suffered at the hands of ZPC Kariba in the decisive game at the National Sports Stadium, are now banking on their bitter enemies CAPS United to do them a huge favour and win at Gwanzura on Sunday.

Last year, CAPS United ended Harare City’s hopes of piping Dynamos for the title when they drew with the Sunshine City Boys while DeMbare thumped Black Mambas and at the same time condemned the policemen to Division One football.

Mangwiro had in the last two weeks increasingly come under the spotlight as his CAPS United, just like last season, stand in the way of a team that is competing against Dynamos for the championship title.

It is that dependence by Dynamos, on the outcome of the game between ZPC Kariba and CAPS United, with the hope by the blue half of the capital that the Green Machine win, that had naturally thrust Mangwiro under the spotlight amid insistence by the Makepekepe coach that he would not consider doing any team favours “but play to win’’.

That stance appeared to have riled some CAPS United fans who felt Mangwiro, a former Dynamos midfielder, was plotting to aid the team that gave him his playing platform, in their quest for a fourth straight title.

But, for all the noise that has been made about Mangwiro, who also maintains that he has “great respect for my mentor Saul Chaminuka’’ and what he would do in the final league game of the 2014 season, the reality of the matter is that the CAPS United coach will not be directing operations at Gwanzura on Super Sunday.

Instead Mangwiro and Zifa technical director Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe will be in Cameroon to attend a FIFA elite instructors’ course to be held in Douala, Cameroon from November 19 to 25.

While Mangwiro was heading out of the country yesterday Chaminuka, on the verge of becoming only the second coach after ex-Black Rhinos mentor Shepherd Murape in 1984 to guide a team to the championship title on their maiden season with the top-flight, was arriving back home.

Chaminuka had travelled to Agadir, Morocco, on national duty with the Young Warriors who put up a gallant show in a 2-1 losing cause against the Atlas Lions in an International friendly last Sunday.

The former Eagles coach has turned Gwanzura into a fortress where ZPC Kariba have not lost a game this season and with the log leaders being home to former CAPS United players such as Limited Chikafa and Pride Tafirenyika in their ranks, it is all pointing to Chaminuka’s finest hour on Super Sunday in a game that will also be beamed live on SuperSport.
A wily fox Chaminuka has also built his ZPC Kariba team around a host of the players he had at Eagles with six of the players — Tonderai Mateyaunga, Peter Muzondo, Obey Mwerahari, Dennis Dauda, Ephraim Mwinga, and Tsepo Ranthokoane — who featured in the famous 2-1 triumph over Dynamos having previously played for the now defunct Chitungwiza club.

The match at Gwanzura has also pushed into the shade Dynamos’ last assignment of the season against How Mine although there is a window of hope among the Glamour Boys’ faithful that things might just change dramatically.

But Mangwiro will miss all the action on Super Sunday as they will add further caps on their coaching hats.
Takaendesa and Mangwiro automatically qualified to take part in the course because they were the best overall performers during the local FIFA instructors’ course held at the ZIFA Village earlier in July.

Mangwiro and Jongwe will, after the course, become CAF instructors and will join a small band of such coaches in this country.
Former Warriors coach Gibson Homela and Jongwe’s predecessor at ZIFA, Nelson Matongorere, are the only other CAF coaching instructors at ZIFA’s disposal.

Jongwe told the ZIFA website yesterday before their departure for the week-long course that the course will help build the capacity of the domestic game given that it would add the numbers of instructors who can groom more coaches.

“Since development is at the core of football, the addition of two more CAF instructors will better equip the nation training our own coaches without always seeking foreign expertise.
“Coaches’ development currently needs critical attention since we are going to implement systems that regulate minimum qualifications for coaches working under all ZIFA registered clubs so that we do not lag behind the global football family,’’ Jongwe said.

Apart from the instructors’ course a number of coaching courses have been held across the country this year with the major highlight being the first crop of CAF A licensed coaches.
Before the first batch of local CAF A licensed coaches graduated at ZIFA Village, Zambian expatriate and former Highlanders coach Kelvin Kaindu was the only gaffer in the Premiership who was in possession of the elite qualification.

Super Sunday Fixtures:
Harare City v Chicken Inn (Rufaro); Triangle United v Shabanie Mine (Gibbo); Black Rhinos v Bantu Rovers (Rimuka); Buffaloes v Hwange (Sakubva); FC Platinum v Chiredzi (Mandava); Highlanders v Chapungu (Hartsfield); ZPC Kariba v CAPS United (Gwanzura) SS; Dynamos v How Mine (National Sports Stadium).