BULAWAYO giants Highlanders threw away a marvellous opportunity to land the 2013 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL) title after their humiliating 4-0 loss to Harare City at Rufaro Stadium yesterday.
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The three points thrown away by Bosso with one game to go may well prove particularly costly taking into account the team’s unconvincing home performances this season.
Highlanders will play Shabanie Mine in the last game of the season at Emagumeni next weekend and have to win convincingly while hoping that Harare City and Dynamos lose their matches.
With champions Dynamos settling for a 2-2 draw against their boggey side Chicken Inn at Barbourfields Stadium, Highlanders needed a win to take them three points clear of their Harare rivals.
But the defeat left both Highlanders and Dynamos on 51 points and Harare City at the summit on 53 points.
Last season, Highlanders — who last won the championship in 2006 — lost the title to Dynamos on goal difference after suffering only one loss, but drawing nine times.
This season Highlanders seem to have lost the plot on two matches, when their head coach Kelvin Kaindu decided to attend a Uefa B Licence coaching course in the United Kingdom.
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How the executive allowed the head coach to desert the team at the most crucial moment of the season boggles the mind.
Kaindu first left ahead of the match against Motor Action, which they drew 1-1 with Bekithemba “Super” Ndlovu in charge.
However, Ndlovu’s deficiencies were exposed at Rufaro Stadium yesterday when it mattered most in a game Bosso could not afford to lose.
Before a ball was kicked yesterday, every Bosso supporter was confident of victory which would have left them needing just a point from the last game against Shabanie.
But as the game developed and Harare City became more dominant in possession, a draw looked like the only hope.
However, Bosso just did not do enough in the last third to make that vital breakthrough and in the process showed that they are not championship material.
A Southern Eye crew found a sombre atmosphere enveloping the Highlanders Clubhouse in the city.
One Bosso life member, who refused to be identified, said it was not proper for the Bosso executive to allow Kaindu to jump ship at this crucial stage of the league.
“We are at a crucial stage. That person is not a permanent coach at Highlanders and they should not have allowed him to leave at this stage. He could have postponed travelling to the UK. The executive must be answerable for this fiasco,” the Bosso member said.
Another member said the players at the Bulawayo giants were not championship winning material.
“I am very hurt. These players don’t have that commitment. It is useless that a team that wants to win the championship have players that are old. Most of these players were not bought. We need to visit the junior policy,” the member said.
Bosso lacked their early season sharpness and ability to break from deep as the match progressed.
True to the members’ observations, stand-in coach Ndlovu had the look of a lost soul after Harare City attacks pinned his team in their own half for long stretches of the match.
The dream of winning the Castle PSL will have to wait another year.
The Bosso central defence has struggled all season and did not look like the solid base on which to build a title challenge in yesterday’s game.
The lack of sharpness of the strike force and glaring lack of depth must be particularly worrying to the club’s executive. Twitter: @fmbele
