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Ocean Mushure

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor—
DYNAMOS skipper Ocean Mushure believes their triumph over bitter rivals CAPS United was more than just about the points and has boosted their confidence levels for a strong finish to the Premiership championship race. The Glamour Boys underlined their resurgence, in a season they have dramatically turned themselves from a hopeless outfit into serious title challengers, with a deserved 2-0 victory over the champions, which also gave them the bragging rights for the capital.

DeMbare, however, have had very little time to celebrate their derby showdown win with Mushure yesterday maintaining that focus immediately shifted to the Battle of Zimbabwe clash against Highlanders at Rufaro on Sunday.

Mushure, one of the stand-out players at Dynamos together with Cameroonian forward Christian Ntouba Epoupa, has also welcomed his new advanced midfield attacking role by rewarding his team with six goals in the last month.

The 32-year-old former Monomotapa man was also outstanding for the Warriors at the COSAFA Castle Cup tournament in South Africa where he finished with four goals after coach Sunday Chidzambwa had decided to push him to the left side of his attacking midfield.

Dynamos coach Lloyd Mutasa, who was Chidzambwa’s assistant at the COSAFA Castle Cup, then decided to let his captain continue in that advanced role on their return from South Africa.

But as Dynamos stepped up their act ahead of their showdown with Bosso at Rufaro, Mushure pointed to their win over CAPS United as a massive victory.

“We are playing Highlanders soon after the match against CAPS United and for us it means two big games and a huge test of character.

“But I must say the Derby win further boosted our confidence. Even though we had won our last five games before Sunday, I think the Derby is always special and we had a number of youngsters who had not played in the Derby before and winning against CAPS United before that big crowd has helped to boost their confidence.

“I think they will not be as nervous now when we play Highlanders at home,’’ Mushure said.

He said they had resolved not to read into the lean spell that their old Bulawayo rivals are going through.

Bosso have terribly lost their way and have now lost four successive matches to slump into eighth place and with their wantaway coach Errol Akbay clashing with his executive, the Bulawayo giants find themselves 19 points behind revitalised city rivals Chicken Inn.

“It is never an easy game against Highlanders, whether they have problems or not or whether they are missing some players or not,’’ said Mushure.

“In fact Dynamos have never had any easy game whether it is against Chapungu or Tsholotsho and that is why I believe that this is another big test for us and we need to play with the same kind of determination we showed against CAPS United’’.

Mushure also reflected on a season where stability has been a password and paid glowing tribute to the club’s management led by president Kenny Mubaiwa, his deputy Solomon Sanyamandwe and secretary-general Webster Marechera.

“If one looks at our team, we may have had new players this year but we have also been more united and more focussed. There has been no player strikes and we have been getting a lot of motivation from the executive . . . .they have always supported each one of us whenever there is a problem,’’ Mushure said.

Sanyamandwe, a long standing fierce Dynamos supporter, was co-opted into the Dynamos leadership as the workload became too heavy for Mubaiwa who was juggling with leading the league.

Sanyamandwe has been brimming with confidence and bragging about their title credentials, Mushure and Mutasa have been magnanimous in victory.

But with CAPS United’s campaign being affected by the loss of some star players to foreign clubs and injuries blighting the season of some of the key men who remained like Tafadzwa Rusike and Edmore Sibanda, DeMbare have been left to battle it out with the platinum mining pair of Ngezi Platinum and FC Platinum as well as leaders Chicken Inn.