Of Super Simba and Super Diski!

The recent form of Dynamos Striker Simba Sithole dragged us once again into the "Is Super Diski Good for Zim Football" debate. With what Simba has done over the past few weeks, we wondered “Is this the guys who signed a 5 year contract for the ABSA Premiership’s basement club, spent more than a year helping others to train only to be sent packing without kicking a ball in any official match just over a year into the contract? Is this the guy not good enough to play for a Mamelodi Sundowns team that in 10 league matches, has scored only 5 goals, won once, lost six times and anchors the ABSA PSL log? The same team whose official website has a poll in which 68% of the respondents (supposedly the majority being fans) think it will end the season at the bottom? It’s the same guy who is now knocking the door at being the leading light at the country’s most inform team, Dynamos!


Football, an interesting sport isn’t it?

For the uninitiated, let’s rewind a bit.

Simba Sithole left Zimbabwe in 2011, red hot and clearly the hottest property on the local football scene at that time, to join super rich South African side Mamelodi Sundowns. He had banged 10 goals for Caps United in 10 games, lighting the local Premiership. Ask Roderick Mutuma (eventually won the golden boot that season), it took him a mighty long time to catch up with him, long after he had assumed his new role as a ball boy at the Brazillians’ training ground in Pretoria. And the fact that Mutuma ended up with only 14 goals for the entire season, only 4 better than Simba who had played less than half the number of games speaks volumes.

Unknown to many of us, Simba was actually going to disappear from the football radar with this (what now looks like an ill-advised) move down-south. The young man failed to break into the Brazilians’ first team, which also had countrymen and direct replacement at Caps United, Nyasha Mushekwi in their ranks. He could not even eke a substitute appearance. He remained forgotten and endured a torrid 12 months of no football. The inevitable happened; Sundowns decided to cancel his contract and the young man had to find another employer. He reportedly tried his luck Pretoria University but failed.

To his credit, the 21 year old bit the bullet and decided to come back home. He however did the unlikely by joining Caps bitter rivals, Dynamos, replacing another Zimbabwean who had joined the great trek down south, Takesure Chinyama. In his first games, Simba clearly showed a lack of match fitness, testimony to his lack of action down south. The coaches at Dynamos where however patient with him, and now he is beginning to get close to his form of April 2011.

The Zimbabwe Under 23 goal poacher has finally lit up the stage for DeMbare. Crucially, he got goals in duels with bitter rivals Highlanders in a 1 – 1 league draw and of late in a 3 – 0 defeat of former club Caps United in a Mbada Diamonds semi-final match. Nothing endears a DeMbare player to Vazori veButter more! This is just so timely for the DeMbare faithfuls, right in the middle of chasing a rare retention of the double - the Mbada Diamonds Cup in which they have made it into the final and the league, which they currently lead by 2 points over rivals Highlanders.

By contrast, things are not so rosy at Simba’s former base, Chloorkop. Morale is at an all-time low as the team Sithole failed to break into languishes at the bottom of the ABSA Premiership with 6 points from 10 games. Since the beginning of the SA season, round about the time Sithole joined Dynamos, those who are too good to play alongside him have scored a combined total of 5 goals in the league; the exact number Sithole alone has delivered to his new side over the same time. None of them has been able to score twice thus far! Surely we ought to ask, is Simba good enough to be the toast of DeMbare yet not good enough for the bottom placed in the South African Premiership? Who really believes this?

This question deserves more attention as we hear of another South African Premiership side, Bloemfontein Celtics’ interest in the player. We don’t mind our Zim players going down south to make a Rand or two, but are they not just making a mockery of themselves being made to appear as good for nothings sweating it in training, without being given a fair chance on match day? We know our players deserve a better platform to display their skills than perhaps what the ZimPSL is currently offering, but at what price must they go? Are we not shooting ourselves in the foot? We don’t even want to start imagining how much Simba could have improved had he stayed at Kepekepe for the entire last season, for its now clear that his absence in the goal scorers charts for the last 12 months has not been out of inability. The boy is good!

Look, stories of players changing clubs, firing blanks and then deciding to go back to their clubs or joining a third one are awash in world football. We all know of the Peter Crouches, Fernando Torreses and Andy Carrolls of this world. Even our own Benjani has a story to tell. But one thing that is common about all these players is the extent their managers went to to give them game time before deciding to let them go. Who is convinced Simba was given a fair chance to prove himself at Sundowns? Hold on, don’t even sweat on a guess. We are not!

The only plausible reason that could explain Simba’s failure if at all he was given a fair chance is that competition at Sundowns is higher, and by implication they have better quality material than currently obtaining at DeMbare. Can this be true? Can we by implication (given Downs’ current position in the ABSA PSL) assume that Zimbabwe’s PSL log leaders would right now be candidates for relegation if they were playing in the South African Premiership? Would that current Sundowns team beat the trailblazing DeMbare tomorrow? We know fully well some might accuse us of generalising issues here, but come on! We know better!

With what Simba has shown at Caps United and Dynamos, as well as the Young Warriors, we must be convinced this boy is good. We only hope and pray that he is not hurried again this time around to trek down south. His talent looks like made for a better league that Super Diski.

DeMbare Penalty Blues

Harare giants Dynamos let a massive chance to take over the leadership of the local Premier Soccer League (PSL) slip by falling to Champions Gunners in lively match up at Rufaro, over the weekend. Gunners won the match 1 - 0, courtesy of a third minute strike by midfielder David Redhiyoni. Despite playing way below par, DeMbare had a perfect chance to at least get a point and draw level on points with leaders Motor Action when they were awarded a 61st minute penalty, but goalkeeper Washington Arubi put the ball wide, to leave DeMbare still trailing the Mighty Bulls by one point, having played the same number of games. Now,

Dynamos are faced with a situation where they require other sides, interesting including bitter rivals Highlanders and Caps United, to do them a favour to stop the Mighty Bulls’ march towards their maiden league championship. What will however be disgusting to many DeMbare followers is the fact that Dynamos had the chances to firmly put the destiny of the Championship within their hands, and failure by their players to hold the nerve and convert spot kicks, might turn out to be one of their biggest undoing.

Arubi’s penalty miss was the third by a Dynamos player since October. For a side whose penalty awards are always viewed with suspicion by their rivals, who feel that the multitudes that follow the Mbare side always put referees under pressure to award them spot kicks, DeMbare players must know better than to bury such chances when they come their way. In their last match, DeMbare needed the nerves of referee Ruzive Ruzive to order a retake of Murape Murape’s penalty, to ensure maximum points against the Mighty Bulls. Murape had put his effort wide, but the referee adjudged that Motor Action players were encroaching into the penalty area against the rules of the game, and ordered a retake. Up stepped Arubi to draw DeMbare to within a point of the Eric Rosen owned side. However, the Zimbabwe International goalkeeper could not repeat his feat against Gunners’ Tafadzwa Dube, as he put his effort wide, much to the chagrin of those occupying Vietnam Stand.

It is interesting though to note that at the beginning of the season, defender Guthrie Zhokinyu took responsibility for all of Dynamos’ spot kicks, until the game against Hwange at Rufaro Stadium in October. DeMbare again went on to lose the game 1 – 0, dropping more points which they may live to regret come end of the season. Zhokinyu missed a controversial penalty, taken after Hwange players had threatened to walk off the pitch protesting against the penalty award, given after midfielder Wonder Sithole had tumbled in the box. Zhokinyu might have later wished that Chipangano had gone ahead with their actions, as they were likely to result in the abandonment of the match and possibly awarding of points to DeMbare.

After the Zhokinyu miss, striker Evans Gwekwerere was entrusted with the penalty taking job, but even he found the going tough. Eagles goalkeeper Samuel Mafukidze dived to his right to save his effort in another league match at Rufaro, restricting Dynamos to a painful 1-1 draw – a case of 2 points lost than 1 gained. Gwekwerere was immediately sidelined from the penalty taking duties, and veteran Murape Murape came to the scene. Murape’s first chance at glory was going to be in the volatile top of the table clash against the Mighty Bulls. Having missed a seater a week earlier against bitter rivals Caps United in open play a game earlier, Murape sought to endear himself with the DeMbare faithful with the goal that was to dehorn their foes to the throne. Again, the penalty blues stuck with him. He missed, only for Ruzive and Arubi to save his day.

Missing so many penalties in the twilight of the season is likely to see Dynamos paying heavily. All, but one of the penalty misses so far have been the difference between collecting points or walking off empty handed for DeMbare. It remains to be seen whether they will regret the misses come end of season. Some circles have started suggesting that this is the effect of not having Sports Psychologists in the Zimbabwean premiership, which then sees the players failing to hold their nerve in the midst of the multitudes’ expectations. Arubi has been one of the most loved Dynamos players this season, with some stellar performances that have often earned him instant cash rewards from the Dynamos followers. His miss over the weekend might have however meted instant justice on his side’s title aspirations, turning him from a hero to villain.

Other pundits claimed that senior players at Dynamos intimidate others, hence the nerves seen on the pitch. One wonders if that is the reason for the constant change of penalty takers. Missing a penalty is common in football, but sometimes there is no better sign of confidence in a player by his teammates or coach than to ask him to take the next one. There seems to be no second chances at Dynamos. Zhokinyu scored more than 4 penalties for Dynamos from the beginning of the season, but was immediately stripped of the responsibility the day he missed the first one. Was that the right strategy? A most recent exhibition of how best to deal with a penalty miss was in the recent World Cup second round match between Ghana and Uruguay. Although he missed probably the most important of his entire career, Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan’s teammates showed a lot of belief in him, which he repaid with lots of composure when he led his teammates in the penalty shootout. Such chances don’t seem to exist at DeMbare, and one wonders who will be brave enough to step up, if they do get a penalty against Kiglon Bird tomorrow.