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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
IF it were a movie, Dynamos’ would be The Rise of a Giant.

Following a slow start to the season, the Harare giants are now proving hard to ignore in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League championship race.

The former champions continue to send statements of intent each week and the noise they are making with their results can no longer be ignored.

Not so long ago, Dynamos were nowhere in the championship matrix and very few paid attention to DeMbare’s endeavour to retain their gone by glamour.

The Harare giants opened their 2017 account with a 0-1 home loss to FC Platinum, followed by a 2-2 draw away to Triangle.

They only recorded their first victory in Week Three against Hwange, scrambling a 1-0 win at the Colliery Stadium.

DeMbare then suffered a 0-1 home defeat to How Mine in their next game.

How Mine coach Kelvin Kaindu took a jab at DeMbare after his team’s victory, describing Dynamos’ lacklustre performance as the worst in many years. He went on to say without a strong Dynamos, the league would be boring.

Fast forward to Match Day 15, Dynamos have struck a rich vein of form, going on a six-game unbeaten run comprising five wins and a draw.

Dynamos are now fourth on the league table with 26 points from 13 games and trail log leaders Ngezi Platinum Stars by two points.

Clearly Dynamos’ juggernaut can’t be ignored.

What is it that Dynamos, who axed a number of so-called big names at the end of last season, did right?

“We made wise buys and did away with overrated players that had negative influences in the squad. Simply put, it was an issue of doing away with rotten apples before they spoiled fresh ones,” said Dynamos chairman Kenny Mubaiwa.

One wise buy was Cameroonian striker Christian Epoupa. The West African has adapted at Dynamos and now has five goals to his account.

He has scored some classy goals, which unfortunately were not captured for the archives since some were scored in games not broadcast or recorded.

Across the country in Bulawayo, DeMbare’s old foes Highlanders just went into the market and signed foreign players for the sake of signing.

Bosso signed Equatorial Guinean striker Obiang Esono and the DRC pair of Yves Ebabali and Tambwe Kalunga, who are yet to feature for the team.

Either they are struggling to command first team places or were brought in without input from the technical staff.

Epoupa spent more than two months training with Dynamos before they decided to sign him, but Bosso only took two weeks to make up their minds about players that are always on the terraces.

“Epoupa came when we started our trials in January and only signed in March just a few weeks before the start of the season,” adds Mubaiwa.

He said his patience with coach Lloyd Mutasa also contributed to the team’s good run.

“In every business, you plan and make projections. We agreed that we were rebuilding and I for one understood what the coach was doing, hence my support. There were some who wanted instant results, but when you are starting a project, you mustn’t rush to get to the end at the expense of quality. We want to bring glamour to our play, build a strong Dynamos and then maybe in the second half we may talk of going for the championship,” Mubaiwa said.

While Dynamos are climbing up the league table, Highlanders continue to blow hot and cold.

Former Dynamos striker Rodreck Mutuma has just scored two goals for Highlanders and it’s high time he realises he is not paid to make crafty passes, but to score.

It’s worrisome that Bosso have stuck to business as usual at the expense of their success starved fans.

Fans pay to watch a winning team and at this rate, it can only be a matter of time before Bosso fans stay away. Their style of play has become so predictable that any team can shut them out.

Unless radical transformation of the team is implemented, Bosso fans will continue to sing the blues and watch gleefully as Dynamos fans cheer on their new-look side.