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form and shattered confidence, but their misfiring forwards again tainted a rather descent day at the office.
The Glamour Boys have struggled to recover from the nightmare of their controversial elimination from the Champions League after a 0-3 mauling by MC Alger in Algiers.
And, while in previous seasons they would have considered yesterday’s draw as two dropped points, given their dominance over their big rivals, things have changed so much this year that the point gained will be embraced as a priceless one.
Having been defeated by Bosso, for the first time in five years, in the Independence Cup final and struggled in a lifeless draw against Hwange at home, DeMbare were clearly under pressure at Barbourfields.
To Lloyd Mutasa’s credit, his Glamour Boys managed to win a point and they will probably return home with a big psychological boost that if they can hold Bosso, in their backyard, then they can do better against the smaller teams.
Others will say there is nothing special about picking a point from Barbourfields because even Masvingo United, who had barely trained all week, went there and emerged with a draw against Highlanders.
But the same Yuna Yuna, for all the chaos in their camp, are unbeaten in five league matches and that says something about their pedigree, if not Luke Masomere’s technical brilliance, and yesterday they beat Kiglon 3-1 at Mucheke.
However, for Dynamos to do better, they will have to score and, after another day without their fans celebrating a goal, you wonder where that special goal will come from.
The statistics make sad reading.
Yesterday’s goalless draw meant that Dynamos have failed to score in four of their five league matches this season.
The Glamour Boys have only two goals, in five matches, to their credit and they both came in their 2-0 win over FC Platinum at Rufaro.
DeMbare failed to score against Kiglon (0-1); Motor Action (0-2); Hwange (0-0) and Highlanders (0-0).
In eight matches since their sensational 4-1 destruction of MC Alger at Rufaro, Dynamos have only scored three times – two against FC Platinum and one against Gunners in the Independence Cup semi-finals.
In six other matches, since that MC Alger game at Rufaro, Dynamos fired blanks.
In 720 minutes of football, since they received a standing ovation from Rufaro after destroying MC Alger, Dynamos have only managed three goals at an average of a goal every 240 minutes.
That translates to 12 hours of football and three goals to show for that.
And, on average, that is a goal every four hours.
Yesterday Mutasa threw Rodrick Mutuma back on the bench and went in with Patrick Khumbula but the result was the same old story.
Clearly Dynamos have a solid defence and, week-in-and-week-out, they are showing that but their strikeforce has the worst number of goals, among the teams with five games, in the league. Even Shooting Stars (four) have scored more goals than Dynamos.
While the Glamour Boys have a reason to find comfort in the point they earned in the City of Kings yesterday, that draw doesn’t tell us anything different from what we have been seeing in this team.
Washington Arubi and his defence have been first class but someone will have to score goals if this team is to start winning matches and challenge for honours.
Cuthbert Malajila was challenged by one fan on Facebook yesterday to come back and help his team. The Zimbabwe international forward urged the fans to invest their trust in the young forwards, backing them to find their scoring boots once they find a way to deal with the pressure that comes with playing for Dynamos.
Mutasa appears to be banking on that, too, and he deserves time to build his project.