Bosso legends speak out

By The Standard and Newsday | Sep. 8, 2014

FORMER Highlanders players have expressed disappointment at the continuous defeats by Dynamos with former championship winning chairman and manager Ernest “Maphepha” Sibanda saying the philosophy of play at Bulawayo giants has changed over the years.

Sibanda said altered thinking was contributing immensely to Bosso’s failure to beat champions DeMbare.

Highlanders embarrassingly crashed 1-4 to Dynamos on Saturday in the TM Pick n Pay Challenge Cup final at the National Sports Stadium and has this year lost in both league matches in Harare and Bulawayo and the Bob 90 Super Cup.

Sibanda came short of blaming coach Kelvin Kaindu saying former Spain champions Real Madrid fired Fabio Capello in 2007 just 11 days after the Italian led the Spanish giants to their first league title since 2003.

Capello had two more years to his contract, but drew criticism because of his tactics.

“We cannot talk about the referee. 4-1 is just disappointing. We just have to put our house in order. We have been losing the philosophy at Highlanders over the years. We had our own philosophy, our own type of play.

That was the same in the 1970s with the wing play of Isaac Mafaro and Tommy Masuku, then Madinda Ndlovu and Morgan Phiri and then we had Peter Ndlovu.

“The last we had was that of Mamba Chisoni and Noel Kaseke, who supplied the wingers. We had the fastest wingers.

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“Maybe modern football has changed, but I am not saying the coach is wrong.

“We have to go back to that philosophy. Remember the Real Madrid coach who was fired because of his type of play even when they were not playing badly?” Sibanda said.

Former striker Zenzo Moyo said with the type of players at Bosso, there can be no talk of winning the championship.

“These boys don’t have what it takes to beat Dynamos. It does not make sense to beat all the other teams and not beat Dynamos. We can’t blame the coach on this one. What do you need a coach for in big games like that? It’s a money game and the game in itself motivates, but these boys don’t have the hunger to beat Dynamos. We cannot continue to blame the coach. It’s tricky to win the championship at this stage. You must lead Dynamos by an unassailable 12 points. At that position now, no one will remove Dynamos from the top,” Moyo said.

Another former player, defender Douglas “British” Mloyi said Highlanders had resigned themselves to losing to Dynamos and the defeats are just psychological.

“We better go back and train because we used to beat Dynamos. These players have just accepted they will never beat Dynamos. They have just resigned themselves to Dynamos.

“Why are we winning other games and failing to beat Dynamos? We can’t blame the coach, must he go and score? I still blame the players’ approach when it comes to Dynamos,” Mloyi said.

After the match on Saturday, Kaindu admitted on national television that Bosso players were not psychologically geared for Dynamos saying the defeat would have an impact on the remaining league matches.

“I think today we just failed to operate. “We created a few chances in the first half, but we failed to get goals. We also played the offside trap which we don’t normally play,” he said.

“It’s a psychological thing that we need to work on — when we play Dynamos. I think most of the players just go and play an average game mindful of being singled out as the player who made that mistake because after the game there will be so much criticism and I think this has affected our play.

“The loss will impose some negative impact on the team, but as a side, I think we can fall. What is important is going to happen in the next game that we play.”