The Sunday Mail
THE race for the Castle Lager Premiership top prize heads for the home stretch.
For the past three seasons, the top-flight league’s orchestra has given its audience very exciting and melodious rhythms — going all the way to the wire — something that was amiss in the years long before that when Dynamos used to wrap up the title with about six or even eight matches to go!
Fun, excitement, drama for the past three seasons? Oh yes, no doubt about that. Even the competitiveness amongst most of the teams has definitely been full value for the fans and the sponsor.
Sadly, the appalling lack of goals has been a glaring mishap amongst the premier clubs performances.
The top-shelf goals seen so far — with four matches remaining in the season after today’s clashes — can be counted on one hand.
Those five finishes were from Chicken Inn’s Timothy January in a 1-all draw with Dynamos at Gwanzura; Triangle United’s Richard Kawondera’s sizzler against Chiredzi at Gibbo; Caps United’s Hardlife Zvirekwi’s spellbinding effort against Chicken Inn at Luveve; Limited Chikafa’s unbelievable slicer against Highlanders at Hartsfield and Dynamos’ Ronald Chitiyo’s scorcher against Shabanie Mine at Rufaro.
Save for those astounding moments, the fact remains that our current strikers have forgotten how to score.
As of this morning, the country’s leading goalscorer (12 goals) with 25 or 26 matches played, is Highlanders’ Charles “Chachacha” Sibanda.
In fact, the top goal scorers at the end of the past three or four seasons have not managed to reach the 20-goal mark!
Just take a look at the following and bombarding statistics of the past when it came to the top finishers at the end of the season:
In 1970, the late Peter “Thunderboots” Nyama of Chibuku Shumba smashed in an incredible 62 goals. Three years later Dynamos’ menacing winger, Ernest “Nyamuzihwa” Kamba hit the net an amazing 38 times.
In 1986, another Dynamos genius, Moses “Razorman” Chunga, blasted home 46 league goals and in 1992, the late Highlanders’ ever-smiling front runner, Adam “Adamski” Ndlovu, struck a chilling 32 times.
How times have changed.
And if one looks at the following statistics of the world’s most prolific striker right now, Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo (oh gosh, hasn’t the football world run out of superlatives for this genius?): A whopping 15 goals in just eight out of 38 La Liga matches then we start to get a clearer indication of life at the very top!
I spoke to former national team and ex-Metal Box forward, Chita “Black Mamba” Antonio, who was runner-up to Kamba in that 1973 top goalscoers’ chart with 25 goals and he pointed to the lack of a killer instinct within our current strikers’ abilities as one of their shortcomings.
“These youngsters lack a deadly finishing approach when they are in the penalty box, something that our generation possessed immensely.
“I watch a lot of Premiership matches and I haven’t seen anybody who possesses the predatory prowess of the likes of the late Paul ‘Staff Nurse’ Tsumbe, Shacky ‘Mr Goals’ Tauro, Daniel ‘Dhidhidhi’ Ncube, Gift ‘Ghetto’ M’pariwa or Maronga ‘The Bomber’ Nyangela.
“I also think that perhaps the modern game has been commercialised to such an extent that nowadays, players think more about the financial aspects of the game thereby lacking the much needed passion which should be the game’s priority.
“The other thing is that when guys like us try to impart our skill and prowess of scoring and being at the right place at the right-time, these youngsters laugh it off and belittle yesteryear’s approach.
“So in the end we just keep quiet and watch,” said Antonio, who carried on with his majestic finishing after he moved to Bulawayo giants, Zimbabwe Saints, in 1975.
On a refreshing note though, the goalkeeping standards seem to have been maintained long after the departure of the great Bruce “Jungleman” Grobbelaar and Japhet “Short Cat” Muparutsa.
We have a quality base of agile and commanding shot stoppers around like Maxwell Nyamupangedengu (Harare City), Tendai Hove (ZPC Kariba), Artwell Mukandi (Dynamos), Itai Chiwara (Buffaloes), Donovan Bernard (How Mine) and Tafadzwa Dube (Caps United), who have really been in irresistible form throughout the whole season.
Well, who knows, we might witness a miraculous and sudden gold rush for goals by our strikers in the remaining matches to turn back the hands of time.
Till next week, remember to take care of your loved ones and each other. It’s bye bye for now.
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