Zimpapers Logo

Stanford Chiwanga, [email protected]
IF this isn’t the low-water mark for Dynamos, it’s as close as it gets. Another humiliating defeat. Another Dynamos team making unwanted history — losing twice to their arch-rivals in the same season for the first time in six years.

Their loss to Highlanders was a stark reminder of which club is currently superior — it’s Bosso, and it will remain that way unless Kelvin Kaindu fails to work some magic. It may not be a heavy defeat, but the latest loss paints as grim a picture.

Heading into the match, there was little expectation that DeMbare would win — they have only won five of their 18 matches so far. But this could have been, should have been, a chance to build momentum.

After months of turmoil at the club, there was hope that a strong showing could spark a shift in the second half of the season, resulting in Dynamos clawing back into the league race. But Highlanders had other ideas.

Last season, Genesis Mangombe looked to have stabilised the team. But 2024 is not 2023, the doubters have found their voices — again — and the fans have shown their displeasure by not turning up to watch awful performances. Genesis has been criticised for failing to react in-game and for making substitutions too late.

More alarmingly, his authority over a “star-studded” squad is being questioned by everyone, including the very team he assembled. Against Highlanders, he fielded a weakened side in an attempt to regain control from “rebel” players.

There was no Frank Mukarati, Kelvin Moyo, and Shadreck Nyahwa in the first eleven.
All season, Genesis has been calling for patience, believing his team will eventually click and do great things.

Few would agree. Patience was already running thin before the game against Highlanders, and the result and performance point to a team that has again lost its way. Dynamos are associated with slick, direct football, but Genesis’s team is running in circles like a dog chasing its tail. The players look like they would rather be somewhere else except on the football pitch.

There was little intensity against Highlanders. The players expected to inject dynamism — Keith Madera, Shadreck Nyahwa, and Arthur Musiyiwa — were either left on the bench or disappointed.

All season, most Dynamos players have ebbed between periods of frustration, drifting without the ball, or leading fruitless one-man missions into shut doors. They are all a lost cause. They are devoid of life and purpose. The team long descended into mediocrity. No wonder a ruthless Highlanders put them out of their misery. It could have been 0-5.

Before the game, most people, including Highlanders’ fans, were saying that the Dynamos squad is stronger than the Highlanders one. At the end of the match, they all ate their words. Bosso steamrolled past DeMbare. They have never had it this easy. Highlanders outscored, outpaced, outran, outfought, out-pressed, and out-tackled Dynamos.

Standing on the sideline, Genesis could not find solutions. Whereas once Dynamos could call on Junior Makunike to offer strength and tenacity at the base of midfield, now they’re reliant on a midfield trio of Donald Mudadi, Tanaka Shandirwa, and Temptation Chiunga — who are too often bystanders.

Only Sadney Uri-Khob offered any real glimmer of light. He asked the Highlanders’ rear-guard a number of questions. But to expect a Namibian in his first season in Zimbabwe to carry the team is too much to ask. It is actually unfair and cruel.

Dynamos fans have fallen in love with Uri-Khob after a slow start, and he may be viewed as a saviour, but he alone will not fix the structural problems in the team or the lack of cohesion throughout the team.

The reality is that Dynamos are now pathetic. On the other hand, after being active in the transfer window, Highlanders are expected to dust off the lethargy that was threatening their chances to run the race with the Platinum teams.

They have the fans on their side, and that advantage should see them turn Barbourfields Stadium into a fortress. If they fail, then Kaindu should be asked to answer difficult questions.

If he fails to answer them, he might need a tone-deaf executive like the Dynamos one to keep him at the helm of the black and white army.
− @plainstan