Maruwa, Chigowe reunite on opposing sides

Eddie Chikamhi

Senior Sports Reporter

JUST over a year after their ugly divorce, Herbert Maruwa will once again come face-to-face with Dynamos, his former employers.

The youthful coach will lead struggling Gweru side TelOne against DeMbare in a rescheduled Castle Lager Premiership match at Bata Stadium this afternoon, seeking to rock the Glamour Boys’ boat that had begun sailing smoothly under the tutelage of Lloyd Chigowe.

Maruwa and Chigowe once sat in the same dugout at DeMbare and the familiarity could make this match a tricky affair.

“No emotions at all. I am at ease,” Maruwa told the Zimpapers Sports Hub.

“They owe me nothing and I also don’t owe them anything. So, I am expecting a good game. Dynamos is a big institution and, of course, I was once a coach there.

“But that is now in the past and my job now is to make TelOne win games. We need to make sure that we pull away from the relegation zone and if we win this one, we will rise from the lower rungs.”

Maruwa, who had a lukewarm stint at the Glamour Boys before he was shown the exit door in August last year, has since moved on.

He first landed a job with Harare City in the Northern Region Soccer League before inheriting struggling TelOne, following Tendai Chikuni’s departure from the Wi-Fi Boys.

But he finds Dynamos in top form, having won three of their last five competitive games, both at home and on the CAF Confederation Cup front.

DeMbare are enjoying a rebirth under interim coaching veteran Chigowe.

The last thing that the Harare giants would want at the moment is someone who spoils their party.

“I have unfinished business at Dynamos, and I also have unfinished business with Zimbabwean football. I have been here before, but this time we are trying to instil a winning mentality into the boys, as well as increase the intensity of the game,” said Chigowe recently.

The Dynamos coach, just like his predecessors, has been complaining of poor conversion rate as the team’s major letdown.

But they finally found their range when they scored three goals for the first time this season in the 3-1 victory over ZPC Kariba in a Chibuku Super Cup first-round match on Wednesday.

The goals came from three different scorers, who included star midfielder Donald Mudadi, Ghanaian import Emmanuel Paga and Nomore Chinyerere.

Given their frailties in attack, DeMbare’s game plan no longer depends on certain individuals, according to Chigowe.

Utility man Alick Freddy was on target in their last league match when they edged Chegutu Pirates 1-0 at Rufaro Stadium last Sunday, while midfielder Tanaka Shandirwa found the back of the nets against Zambia’s ZESCO United in the Confederation Cup preliminary round.

“Remember, when I came on board, I said we now need to work on combinations than rely on individuals because if you rely on one person, then we risk putting pressure on one guy,” said Chigowe.

“But at the end of the day, I think the combinations worked and we got three goals.”

DeMbare had accumulated a backlog of fixtures due to their participation in the continental inter-club competition.

They had been pencilled in to play TelOne on Tuesday, just three days before a scheduled trip to Francistown in Botswana for their Confederation Cup assignment against that country’s outfit Orapa United.

But the Premier Soccer League announced on Friday the game had been brought forward to today to allow DeMbare recovery time before travelling.

The PSL decision appeared to catch TelOne unawares.

The Wi-Fi Boys had given their players some days off because of the FIFA international break.

Maruwa told Zimpapers Sports Hub that their programme was affected by the shifting of the fixture.

“We have been working with a Tuesday kick-off and we had given our players a short break. We wanted them to rest a bit and recover from the load from the previous weeks,” he said.

“But then the plan was disrupted because we have to regroup to start preparing for this match.

“This has its own implications on the training programme because when we train, we work with certain loads depending on the number of days we have to prepare for a match.

“We adjust these loads as the week progresses before finally working on the tactical aspects of the game. So, this means we have had to work on a crash programme.’’

Maruwa insisted that TelOne would be ready for battle.

“But that should not be a big excuse. We need to make sure we maximise on every opportunity that we have to garner maximum points. If we win, especially this game in hand, the points will help us get out of the relegation zone,” he said.

“I think we have played too many draws, but the good thing is that we have not lost a match in the last four games. So, we just hope that we start to turn these draws into wins.”

TelOne occupy the 15th place on the log standings with 25 points.

DeMbare are in eighth place, but could end the day in fifth position with maximum points.

Fixtures Today

TelOne v Dynamos (Bata)

Manica Diamonds v Arenel

Movers (Sakubva)