THE domestic football landscape has changed.
BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
It’s six games left before the season comes to an end and the league table makes unpleasant reading for anyone connected to Bulawayo giants Highlanders.
They are stuck in an unfamiliar 10th position on the league table with only 28 points to show.
It’s an awkward position for one of the Big Three teams in the domestic football.
While Dynamos and Caps United have also not really convinced by their standards and are third and fifth on the league table respectively, at this stage of the campaign, Tonderai Ndiraya and Lloyd Chitembwe can, on studying the league table be tempted to burst into song given the precarious position their bitter rivals Highlanders find themselves in.
This is despite that the Harare giants’ credentials will become clearer in the next three matches.
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Bosso have, since 2006 — the year they last won the championship — gone from being invincible to vulnerable.
Without the leadership, power and influence of eccentric goalkeeper Tapiwa Kapini their defensive frailties have been exposed with no one managing to fill the gap left by the veteran shot stopper.
Their shortcomings suggest there are plenty of problems to be resolved by the Bulawayo giants before they could reassert their authority of the previous years.
The manner they capitulated in a 3-1 defeat against Caps United recently should be a major cause for concern.
The statistics for Bosso make an uncomfortable reading. They have conceded an astonishing 26 goals in the campaign so far and with other tricky fixtures still to come, they run the risk of plunging into an irretrievable nosedive by the end of the campaign. They are the only team in the Premier League that has lost four games in the past five matches. Even Dongo Saw Mill, who are at the foot of the table have lost just two matches in their last five matches.
All Dynamos and Caps United can envy about Bosso is Knox Mutizwa.
The 21-year-old has proved his goal scoring abilities and is the Premiership leading marksman with 11 goals after scoring Bosso’s only goal in the defeat to Caps United at the National Sports Stadium at the weekend.
He has demonstrated an eye for goal and has emerged as torchbearer of the Bosso attack. Without him Highlanders have often struggled in front of goal. He is the reason why the Bulawayo giants have scored 27 goals to date and when he doesn’t score others always benefit from his clever runs in the box.
He is the sort of striker who can fit in any of the top teams fighting for the championship and make a difference.
The Green Machine have scored 19 goals to date and if they had a player like Mutizwa on their books to complement the efforts of Leonard Tsipa, there is no doubt they would be fighting for the championship by now.
Sometimes it is difficult to fathom the reasoning of some coaches. Mutizwa was being overlooked even during the reign of Kelvin Kaindu despite having shown flashes of brilliance on the few occasions he was given a run.
He only blossomed to show the Bosso faithful what they have been missing under Bongani Mafu, who was, however, not fortunate enough to last the distance. Although new coach Amini Soma Phiri has shown his faith in the player — there appears to be over reliance on the player.
