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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
LET’S try and give it a name, something like PAKAANGU, a miracle which exploded in this country — between 2010 and 2014 — the first, and only time, something like this happened in the 131 years of league football in the world.

Well, it’s unlikely to happen again.

Why PAKAANGU?
It’s just a re-arrangement of the first two letters of the names of coaches who were involved in that drama — Pasuwa (Callisto); Kaindu (Kelvin); Antipas (Joey) and Gumbo (Rahman).

Of course, there have been countless championships, determined by the cruel formula of goal difference, in world football over the years.

But, what unfolded here, over a period of four consecutive years between 2010 and 2014, has never happened in any country before.

And, it’s unlikely to happen again, a once-off phenomenon which defies logic but which, until now, has not been given the special attention it deserves.

Four straight league championship races, which all ended with the champions and the runners-up, having the same number of points on the table.

Looking back at it, it’s hard to even imagine how it happened because the probability of such a scenario happening, even for just two years on the bounce, is very slim.

We reached out to the Guinness Book of Records, to find out if this has happened before, but while we didn’t get a reply, our research has shown that it’s the first time football has seen something like this.

Well, let’s try and run the story again and remind ourselves what happened.

Top two clubs in a football championship race, somehow, ended with the same number of points, not once, not twice, not thrice but four times in a row.

On all four occasions, one club provided the common denominator, and featured in all the four races that ended in a deadlock at the top.

That same club found a way to recover from the heartbreak of losing the first of those four races, on goal difference, and went on to win the next three races, using the same formula.

Another club, twice in successive years during the same period, finished with the same number of points as the champions, but on both occasions, were denied the ultimate prize by an inferior goal difference.

A rookie coach, coming from virtually nowhere to win his first title as a gaffer, courtesy of his team having a superior goal difference, then went on to repeat the same formula for the next two seasons to complete a hat-trick of titles.

In six straight seasons, including twice on foreign soil, his teams have won the league championship and, on the four occasions he has been in charge from Day One, his triumphant side has never edged the runners-up by more than one point in the race.

Even when three sides, including his team, ended with the same number of points, his club still had the best goal difference and powered to yet another title, his third on the trot.

The two coaches, who ended as runners-up, on the three occasions the title was won by the same gaffer, and same team, on goal difference — between 2011 and 2013 — shared a similar background of having played for the biggest rivals of the eventual winners.

Twice, in succession, the same coach required, and got a helping hand of his club’s biggest city rivals, who managed to reserve their best game, for the last match of the season, to stop opponents from winning their final matches, for their great rivals to be champions.

How did all this happen?

No one, it appears, seems to know but, along the way, Dynamos were beaten to the league title by Motor Action in 2010, on goal difference, after finishing the season with the same number of points as the Glamour Boys.

It was a championship fought in the shadow of poverty, as it was unbranded, with the league having failed to find a sponsors to back them.

But, even without a sponsor, the clubs battled for the honour that comes with being champions and the contest was a riveting one which went all the way to the wire.

In the end, Joey Antipas and his Mighty Bulls were rewarded for their consistency, throughout that campaign, and ended the Glamour Boys’ dominance on goal difference.

The Mighty Bulls would have been celebrating the 10th anniversary of that monumental success story had they not collapsed, along the way, but Antipas remains in the trenches and won another league title with Chicken Inn five years ago.

Callisto Pasuwa was the main beneficiary of the crazy sequence of endings, in the championship races, with his Glamour Boys winning three straight league titles in seasons when they finished with the same number of points as the club that ended in second place.

That was the case in 2011, when Pasuwa — in his first role as a coach of a big club — somehow managed to help his team erase a 12-point deficit to FC Platinum, in the final 11 games of the season, to turn the Glamour Boys into champions.

The crucial match came in the penultimate round of the championship race when Dynamos visited FC Platinum, who were under the guidance of Gumbo, at Mandava with the hosts needing just a draw to effectively seal the title.

An own goal by Daniel Vheremu sank FC Platinum and a routine 2-0 victory for Pasuwa and his men the following weekend handed them the title.

Then, Kaindu and his Bosso came charging and, on two occasions in 2012 and 2013, they finished with the same number of points as Dynamos but, in both cases, they lost the championship because of an inferior goal difference.

Interestingly, in 2013, three clubs finished with the same number of points at the top of the table but DeMbare were still crowned champions.

Harare City would have been champions had they won their final game of the season but a 2-2 draw against CAPS United, with most of the Green Machine fans supporting their cause, cost them dearly.

CAPS United would again destroy the dreams of ZPC Kariba, on the final day of the season in 2014, and in the process help Dynamos be crowned champions, although this time the Glamour Boys ended a point clear of their rivals.

Premier Soccer League 2010 Final Table:

P         W      D       L        F        A      Pts

1.Motor Action    30       20     6        4       52-    18      66 Champs  [Harare]

2.Dynamos           30      20      6       4       43-    13      66  [Harare]                                

Premier Soccer League 2011 Final Table:

1.Dynamos            30     17       7        6       42-     15     58 [Harare] Champs

2.FC Platinum      30      17       7       6        44-    21     58  [Zvishavane]                                

Premier Soccer League 2012 Final Table:

1.Dynamos           30      21       6       3         58-   15      69  Champs [Harare]

2.Highlanders     30       20     9       1         49-   15      69  [Bulawayo]                               

Premier Soccer League 2013 Final Table:

1.Dynamos           30       14      12      4       43-    22      54  Champs [Harare]

2.Highlanders     30       16      6       8        45-   27      54  [Bulawayo]

3.Harare City       30       14      12      4       43-    25      54  [Harare]                                

Premier Soccer League 2014 Final Table:

1.Dynamos           30       16      9       5        34-    18     57 Champs [Harare]

2.ZPC Kariba FC    30      15       11      4        42-    25     56 [*3]  [Kariba]