MaBlanyohails football minds at DeMbare

Fungai Muderere, [email protected]

DYNAMOS interim head coach Lloyd ‘MaBlanyo’ Chigowe is of the view that there are a lot of football brains in the Glamour Boys hence their second successive Chibuku Super Cup glory.

Chigowe appears to have assembled a formidable bench with Joel Luphahla as his assistant.

Luphahla has served his apprenticeship in Division One and at Highlanders. He is a firm believer in investing in younger players and playing exciting but productive football.

In his playing days, he was a pacy winger for Highlanders, Zimbabwe Saints, Young Warriors, Warriors, Paphos Athletic in Cyprus and SuperSport in the South African Premiership.

They have young Ashley Ndebele, a new breed of technical person, who likes the analytical part of the game as the club’s analyst on the tactical and performance end.

Warren Mapanga is the goalkeepers’ trainer.

On Saturday, DeMbare beat Ngezi Platinum Stars after a penalty lottery to again be crowned champions in the country’s biggest knockout tournament in what was interestingly a repeat of last year’s grand final.

“The team has great character, great fighters. There are also a lot of football brains in the boys. We fought from a goal down. The good thing is that we fought back and managed to get an equaliser. We saw some great saves from Nelson Chadya (Ngezi goalkeeper), we could have gotten the equaliser much earlier.

When we saw that we were no longer in the PSL title race, we focused on the Chibuku Super Cup,” said the outspoken Chigowe.

DeMbare needed another late goal, and success in the penalty shootout, to win the tournament for the second straight year.

The Glamour Boys needed a late goal, and success in the lottery, to beat Manica Diamonds in the semi-finals at the same venue.

DeMbare played all their matches in the Chibuku Super Cup at home at Rufaro Stadium.

Their Saturday’s win means they will return to the Caf Confederation Cup next season while Simba Bhora will play in the Caf Champions League.

The Chibuku Super Cup final produced two goals in regulation time and this brought the tally to 38 goals.

Four players Emmanuel Paga (Dynamos), Tymon Machope (Simba Bhora), Charles Teguru (Manica Diamonds) and Farai Madhananga (Ngezi Platinum Stars) — scored two goals each for their clubs to finish as the competition’s joint top goal scorers.

Only Godknows Murwira (CAPS United) and Donald Mudadi of Dynamos were shown red cards during the tournament. — @FungaiMuderere