THE dearth of gunslingers continues to rock the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League with no striker seemingly set to breach the 20-goal mark in the 2023 season as has been in the recent past.
In the last five years, no player has managed to score 20 goals which has characterised the local league over the years.
Caps United’s Dominic Chungwa grabbed the Castle Lager Golden Boot award in 2017 with a 17-goal harvest which ensured a move for him to the top South African League.
Christian Epoupa of Dynamos and Black Rhinos’ Lot Chiwunga were behind him with 12 goals apiece.
FC Platinum’s Rodwell Chinyengetere, now at Caps United, nicked the honours in 2018 also with 17 goals in a year when he was also crowned Soccer Star of the Year for the second year running, a feat only to have been achieved by the legendary Peter Ndlovu in the post-Independence era.
Maybe, Chicken Inn’s Clive Augusto would have done in 2019 as he left the country midway through the season with 14 goals to take the top goal scorer award and no other player surpassed that feat to the end of the season.
But returning from South Africa, Augusto has struggled with his game after joining Caps United before making a return to The GameCocks.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the local league was not played in 2020 and in the 2021-2022 season, it was Caps United’s William Manondo who harvested most of the goals with 17 strikes, three away from the Soccer Star of the Year, Walter Musona of FC Platinum.
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Will the prospective Golden Boot Award winners for the 2023 season, Obriel Chirinda of Bulawayo Chiefs with 11 goals and Manica Diamonds’ Fortune Binzi on 10 goals be able to breach the 20-goal mark with the clubs remaining with nine games to the end of the season?
At Match Day 25 played during the week, the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League, 392 goals have been scored with nine games each for the clubs remaining to the end of the season.
At the same stage last season, 438 goals had already been scored, 46 more than this season.
The last player to breach the 20-mark goal in the local league was Norman Maroto in 2010 when he found the back of the net 22 times for Gunners.
Chipo Tsodzo is one of the players to also have scored 20 goals in 2001 when he was playing for Masvingo United.
Tsodzo, who also played for Zimbabwe Saints and Highlanders, says the scarcity of prolific goal-getters this time around is due to a lack of identification strategies by coaches.
“Maybe football has changed over the years and maybe we were affected by the lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic. But what I think is we need clear-cut coaches for strikers like what is happening all over the world," he said.
"Practice makes perfect. Talent is abundant in the country, look at how for instance Prince Dube (then Highlanders and now Tanzania) was fished out of the rural areas. We don’t have coaches, who can go out there and identify talent.
"During our days, we would play for the juniors and the reserve sides and we would be identified from there. We used to play in recreational clubs as kids, which is no longer there. Coaches don’t go to schools. A few parents can afford to send kids to modern academies. They are expensive.”
Highlanders’ legendary striker Zenzo Moyo also won the Golden Boot in 2000 with 22 goals.
Moyo, who plied his trade in Cyprus, shared his opinion on the matter.
“The system has changed locally. We have coaches, who are signing defensive strikers. I think it has to do with formations. We no longer have those strikers who used to bang in the goals. We have strikers who, cannot play off the ball to get passes from midfielders,” Moyo said.
Alois Bunjira, who scored 23 goals in half the season at Caps in 1996, remains one of the most prolific strikers in the league in terms of goals per game ratio.
Ngezi Platinum Stars, the log leaders have scored 35 goals in 25 matches an average of 1.4 goals per game while second-placed Highlanders have netted only 19 goals, an average of 0.76 per game with FC Platinum, on the third spot have banged in 28 goals with an average of 1.12.
Binzi’s Manica on position four have 29 goals, an average of 1.16 and Chirinda’s Bulawayo Chiefs, way down in position nine, have scored 27 goals with a 1.08 average per game.
Chirinda and Binzi have a hat-trick each with 15 braces scored in the league, eight during play, 22 from the penalty spot and nine missed penalties.
