PSL cancels weekend matches

November 8, 2016

PSL cancels weekend matches

Erol Akbay

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Castle Lager Premier Soccer League has rescheduled its programme and postponed Week 29 fixtures to allow national team coach Callisto Pasuwa to have another look at locally based players when the Warriors take on Tanzania in an international friendly this coming weekend.

Zifa managed to secure an international against Tanzania during the Fifa international weekend and the locally based Warriors, who beat Zambia 1-0 on Saturday, will be joined by the foreign-based contingent for a date against the east Africans.

Chicken Inn central defender Teenage Hadebe scored the solitary goal in the win over Zambia at the National Sports Stadium and is among players expected to make the cut when the local group is fused with the foreign contingent, mostly South African-based players.

The PSL season, which was supposed to end on November 20, will now end on November 27.

“This serves to advise that there will be no Castle Lager PSL matches on the weekend of 12 to 13 November 2016. This is to pave way for the International friendly match between Zimbabwe and Tanzania to be played at the National Sports Stadium,” reads a PSL statement.

The remaining two rounds of the PSL fixtures will be played on the weekends of November 19-20 and November 26-27.

It remains to be seen if cancellation of the league programme will affect teams’ performance when action resumes the following weekend.

Only second-placed FC Platinum and Ngezi Platinum Stars were active at the weekend, battling it out in the Chibuku Super Cup final.

Ngezi Platinum wrote their own piece of history by winning a major trophy in their debut Premiership season after beating their fellow platinum miners 3-1.

Having lost an opportunity for a league and cup double, FC Platinum will now turn their focus to the PSL race, hoping to beat Highlanders and keep the pressure on leaders Caps United.

Postponement of the league matches may also come as a blessing in disguise for FC Platinum, who clearly missed midfielder Winston Mhango and striker Charles Sibanda in the Chibuku Super Cup final. The duo only started training last week after recovering from injuries sustained in a car accident last month.

Mhango and Sibanda’s experience will come in handy when they play host to Highlanders at Mandava Stadium when the league resumes.
Caps United will seek to tighten their grip on top spot when they date Chibuku Super Cup winners Ngezi Platinum.

After playing against Ngezi Platinum, Caps United will wrap up their campaign with an away trip to Gweru where they’ll face Chapungu, while FC Platinum’s last game of the season is against Tsholotsho FC in Bulawayo.

Highlanders, who all but blew their chances of landing the 2016 title after falling 1-2 to Tsholotsho, face Hwange at Barbourfields Stadium in their final game.

Cancellation of the league programme will also give Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa time to resolve the promotional play-offs impasse, which made Chapungu, Hwange, Triangle United and How Mine overnight relegation candidates.

Last month, Zifa councillors called for the revoking of a July 25, 2015, Zifa Assembly resolution stating that two teams would be relegated from the PSL at the end of the 2016 season.

The motion was put to a vote and 16 councillors voted against revoking the 2015 resolution, while 24 councillors for it, 13 abstained and five were absent from the chaotic indaba.

Table
P    W    D    L   F   A   GD   Pts
Caps United             28    16    9    3    40    21    19    57
FC Platinum            28    15    10    3    32    15    17   55
Highlanders             28    16    5    7    38    21    17    53
Dynamos                  28    11    10    7    26    21    5    43
Chicken Inn             28    11   8    9   27    18    9    41
ZPC Kariba               28    10    11    7    22    21    1    41
Harare City               28    11    5    12    30    25    5    38
Ngezi Platinum        28    10    8    10   27    26    1    38
Bulawayo City          28    10    8    10    25    25    0    38
How Mine                 28    8    11    9    26    25    1    35
Triangle United       28    9    8    11    25    31   -6    35
Hwange                     28    9    8    11    24    32   -8    35
Chapungu                 28    7    10    11    22    26   -4    31
Tsholotsho FC         28    7    5    16    22    33    -11    26
*Mutare City            28    7    7    14    22    39    -17    25
Border Strikers        28    4    3    21    10    39    -29    15