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Grace Chingoma, Harare Bureau
Caps United 3 – 0 Ngezi Platinum

IN-FORM Caps United striker Dominic Chungwa hogged the limelight by scoring a brace as the champions’ roar in the Castle Lager Premiership continued yesterday with another good showing at Rufaro where they breathed life into their campaign which until yesterday had become a fade.

The Green Machine have now collected six points inside a week following another crucial victory against FC Platinum on Wednesday at the same venue.

It appears the champions’ juggernaut is on a roll now with their new chief striker Chungwa striking a rich vein of form.

For a team which had been lacking that menacing instinct upfront, the departure of Abbas Amidu and Ronald Chitiyo coupled with the absence of veteran forward Leonard Tsipa, who has been sidelined with an injury, was supposed to provide a huge setback for the defending champions.

But amid all that uncertainty, it seems Makepekepe have found a new “Mr Goals” in Chungwa, who on Wednesday found the opener through a powerful header and repeated the trick again yesterday.

The former Hippo Valley forward, who arrived in the capital at the start of the 2013 season having scored 34 goals for his Eastern Region Division One side, yesterday said he wants to score as many goals as he can.

“So far so good.

“If anything, I want to say thank you to the Almighty God, and I just want to give some credit to my teammates and my coaches.

“We have been through a bad spell and now we are happy that we are back on track.

“I just want to score as many goals as I can and I just want to contribute as much as I can for Caps United, that’s is my target,” said Chungwa.

After the half hour mark, Chungwa found his opener when he finished off a cross from Phineas Bamusi, who did all the work on the flank with a good cut in which the striker perfectly headed home behind Ngezi goalkeeper Nelson Chadya.

Former Black Mambas forward John Zhuwawu immediately increased the lead for Caps United two minutes later when he fired the ball home.

And Zhuwawu, making his third appearance for Makepekepe, engineered the third goal when his cross was nodded into the net by Chungwa after youthful Madamburo goalminder Chadya had failed to clear his lines well earlier on.

It was a done deal for the champions with the City End reverberating with “Basa Ndasiya Ndapedza” as the Caps United fans broke into song and dance.

Caps United assistant coach Fungai Tostao Kwashi said the victory against the former pacesetters is a huge statement that the champions are back where they belong.

“It was a fantastic performance and it was a good message out to everyone.

“It was a big big win, fantastic performance from the whole team. The whole Caps United family plays hard together and work hard together.

“We thank God for keeping us united even in good and bad times.

“Everyone is working hard behind the scenes, everyone is motivated, in football life sometimes teams go through cycles where you go through a bad patch.

“If you notice Caps United, the past 16, 17 months, it has just been beating teams, last year we never lost a match at the National Sports Stadium, it’s a brilliant record.

“In the past two years, we have probably won 22 games on the trot, so in any normal society, any normal football world, you are bound to go through a lean spell but we kept faith in ourselves because we know what we can do within ourselves.

“Don’t forget these are the guys who beat Zamalek, they are the ones who beat TP Mazembe, and these guys have been competing at the highest level which is the Champions League.

“We went through a rough patch but we were running our own race and have set targets for ourselves,” Kwashi said.

The young mentor said they will not get ahead of themselves by talking about (retaining) the league title but would rather take each game as it comes.

The champions will wait to hear from their medical team the extent of goalkeeper Edmore “Zikeeper” Sibanda’s injury after the big goalie limped off early into the second half.

Ngezi Platinum coach, Tonderai Ndiraya, said they will regroup in their next match against Highlanders.

“I think I must just give credit to Caps United. They were more determined than us. I think we saw it from the first whistle, the way they were fighting for every ball. I thought they came into the game wanting it more than we did. We were just slow in everything, particularly in midfield where we were giving the balls away.

“We have lost three points but obviously away from home which probably was expected especially when playing a side like Caps United, they are the champions, the reigning champions.

“We have lost but we live to fight another day. But all credit goes to Caps United for the manner in which they played today, the manner they went about their business today,” he said.

The former Dynamos coach had to change his game-plan in the first half when he introduced attacking Donald Teguru substituting him with defender Edgar Tapera

“We were playing with three defenders at the back and conceded the two goals from the centre and I felt the extra man we had at the back was not giving us what we wanted so it was a matter of adding more men in attack.

“We had to put Tichaona Mabvura into central midfield and of course have the width of Donald Teguru and Terrence Dzvukamanja. We were two goals down in the first half. There was need for quick reaction by adding more men in attack so that we try to come back into the game.

“Unfortunately the plan didn’t work because we could not really create meaningful chances and we were not really using the width and not really winning the balls and we found ourselves on the back foot,” said Ndiraya.

However, Ndiraya said they remain optimistic and keep fighting for the title.

Teams

Caps United: E Sibanda (J Muchambo 52nd minute), V Musarurwa, H Zvirekwi, C Munzabwa, J Jangano, D Chafa, K Nyamupfukudza, P Bamusi (C Kamhapa 67th minute), R Pfumbidzai, J Zhuwawu (A Chidiebere 88th minute), D Chungwa.

Ngezi Platinum: N Chadya, P Jaure, G Murwira, K Murera, E Tapera (D Teguru 40th minute), Q Amini (K Bulaji 63rd minute), L Chakoroma J Nguluve 56th minute), T Mabvura, C Augusto, W Mukanga, T Dzvukamanja.