The Sunday Mail
DYNAMOS striker Rodrick Mutuma must have had his hands in the air just as much as controversial referee Darlington Shonhiwa during last Sunday’s heated Harare derby.
The gangly striker complained about everything on a day he should have grabbed the limelight with an illuminating performance rather than his cry-baby tendencies.
A member of the visiting Mamelodi Sundowns noted after the game: “That tall boy has technique, but his attitude is wrong.
“Marra, he needs to change it, man.”
Mutuma remonstrated with Shonhiwa a countless times and tongue-lashed teammates when it didn’t seem necessary to do so.
One incident stands out.
Minutes after goalkeeper Artwell Mukandi had been beaten by a peach Gerald Phiri free-kick Makepekepe were awarded another set piece from similar range.
Mutuma, with his straddle like run, made his way to Mukandi to offer “advice” when the goalkeeper, who made a meal of things when he conceded to Phiri, would have wanted time to organise his wall.
Mutuma was all over the shore but anonymous when it mattered.
A game that presented him with the perfect opportunity to announce that indeed “the prince is back” after having opened his account against a generous Black Rhinos ended with the striker spurning the best chance of the game.
Mutuma, with the last action of the match, failed to beat badly exposed Jorum Muchambo when anywhere else between those two white posts would have secured DeMbare maximum points.
It was a horrendous miss to cap a disappointing performance.
“I feel guilty about that miss,” Mutuma, who was at the end of some banter from Caps United defender Ronald Pfumbidzai soon after that shocking last minute miss, disclosed.
“That’s a chance I should have buried, it was a much easier than the one I converted against Black Rhinos in my first game.”
That Mutuma lasted 90 minutes on Sunday is a mystery.
Lads such as Simba Sithole and Farai Mupasiri, who were unused substitutes, must have been left with a sour taste in the mouth.
Dynamos coach Kallisto Pasuwa’s assessment of Mutuma’s efforts, after watching the striker for the first time in a competitive environment, was guarded, witty even.
“From a technical point we will continue to work on the player’s conditioning as you know Mutuma had been out of competitive football for a long time.
“. . . I also hope that everyone respects the coach’s decisions which are made in the interests of the club and one such decision was to field Mutuma for the big game against Caps United,” Pasuwa was quoted as saying in midweek.
The Dynamos gaffer was not being naïve; nay he was protecting his boy.
Pasuwa and his technical team of Philimon Mutyakureva, Ticha Diya and Richard Chihoro viciously tore into Mutuma when DeMbare regrouped.
They reminded the striker that he was doing business like a man who has arrived when he hasn’t even left the train station.
Mutuma confirmed being reprimanded for the way he did business against Makepekepe.
“The coaches talked to me about complaining always and am working on it,” he said.
While there is no doubt that Mutuma has some decent talent in him the boy seems to lack the character needed to cut it at professional level.
When a player confronts the referee more than his captain does alarm bells should start ringing.
Mutuma — who failed to cut it at South African side Bloemfontein Celtic — does not need reminding that football is a very short career.
One needs to make hay, very good hay, when the sun is still shining.
For all their Glamour Boys tag DeMbare do not offer one much opportunity to make some cheddar, it’s just a stepping stone.
The self-acclaimed prince will not attract foreign interest if he continues to do business in the manner he did last Sunday.
This afternoon, at the same venue, Mutuma has the chance to prove that his Whatsapp status, which reads “Form is temporary but class is permanent”, holds water as far as he is concerned.
“Playing against Caps again gives me a chance to put right what I did wrong last weekend.
“I won’t promise goal targets, my aim is to help the team do well.
“There is no point in scoring and losing the game, I would rather not score and have DeMbare winning,” said Mutuma.
The prince is back or the prince is bad?
Time will unravel!
