Depleted log leaders Dynamos and Highlanders face potential slip ups in their quest for the championship when they respectively host Motor Action and third-placed Shabanie this afternoon.
REPORT BY ALBERT MARUFU With all the 16 teams having played 21 games, only two points separate champions Dynamos and second-placed Highlanders while at the bottom, action is also getting hotter as five teams are in the murky waters of relegation.
DeMbare, with 49 points, shot to the summit of the log table piping Highlanders who have been leading the pack for the better part of the season after Zifa Appeals Committee awarded them three points for the game against Hwange.
Points from the match in question were deducted after Chipangano had indicated that Dynamos bouncers, had assaulted their coaches Nation Dube and Mamelo Njekwa, which saw them being rushed to hospital for medical attention. The coal miners played the match under protest and their fitness trainer Kenny Nyape and kit manager Andrew Zulu took over the business of the day.
Hwange have since appealed against the decision, but for now the result stands.
However, it is at the top of the log where the two giants are involved in crunch ties at a time when they are missing the services of a number of influential players due to various reasons.
Dynamos, who stuttered to victories in the past two games against Harare City and Quelaton, will be missing the services of the suspended duo of defensive midfielder Devon Chafa and defender Partson Jaure. Cliff Sekete, Milton Makopa and Farai Mupasiri are all out injured while Motor Action only have goalkeeper Marlon Jani out through injury.
However, it is not the above players’ absence that worries Dynamos coach Kalisto Pasuwa, but the team’s complacency in their previous two games.
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In their last league game against Harare City, the team’s fans will tell you that it needed a young boy to throw a two litre container of urine into the ground before Ocean Mushure struck to earn his side a victory.
“Mupasiri, Makopa, Sekete, Jaure and Chafa are out of the match, but we have able replacements in Timire Mamvura, Desmond Maringwa, Thabani Mabvura while George Magariro is also there in defence. Ocean Mushure is 70% fit as well as Simba Sithole. I think Sithole might play for a few minutes,” Pasuwa said.
“If you look at our last two games, we tended to be complacent and our strikers missed a lot of chances. We have been working on that for the past week.”
Motor Action coach Joey Antipas said Dynamos was a big institution even if most of its players were nursing injuries.
“Dynamos have a strong squad and it is going to be a very tough match. We hope to capitalise on their defence, which is a bit slow,” Antipas said.
In Bulawayo, Highlanders, who will be missing key players Bruce Tshuma and Eric Mudzingwa will be hoping for a second-time luck against Shabanie whom they beat 2-0 in the first half of the season.
“We definitely want to win the championship so we have to keep the momentum,” said playmaker Peter Moyo whose side are still to taste defeat.
On the other end of the log, Quelaton, who have managed a paltry six points, are confirmed relegation candidates. Blue Rangers (15 points), Hardbody (18 points), Gunners (18 points), Black Mambas (23 points) are also not safe and need to start picking up points.
Today’s matches Hardbody FC vs Gunners FC (Ascot Stadium), Highlanders FC vs Shabanie Mine FC (Barbourfields), Dynamos FC vs Motor Action FC (Rufaro), Blue Rangers FC vs Quelaton FC (Gwanzura), Buffaloes FC vs Harare City FC (Sakubva)
