How Mine will host league champions Dynamos in their first Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL) match at Barbourfields Stadium (BF) on Sunday due to security concerns at the smaller Luveve Stadium.
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How Mine use Luveve Stadium as their home, but that venue will host a double-header tomorrow with the first match pitting Bantu Rovers and Black Rhinos and the second between Chicken Inn and Harare City.
All the three matches will be beamed on SuperSport 9 and How Mine said after consultation with the PSL, it had been agreed that the match likely to attract quite a substantial number of football fans from across the country, be played at a much bigger venue for security reasons.
“The match will be beamed on SuperSport and for logistics reasons, BF is bigger and the security situation is better. We engaged the PSL and discussed and we agreed that the match be played at Barbourfields Stadium,” How Mine chairman Mlondolozi Nkomo said yesterday.
On Tuesday, Nkomo had indicated that they would play the match at Luveve Stadium where they beat DeMbare 1-0 in July last year after the Harare giants had walloped them 3-0 in the capital in June.
But Luveve could not contain the influx of football fans that thronged the facility for the big match last year with parking for motorists a challenge outside while inside, the stadium was filled to capacity.
Simba Sithole, who has since joined South African side Ajax Cape Town, scored the solitary goal that sunk Dynamos at Luveve last year, leading to chaos after the match.
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How Mine are fresh from a 0-2 defeat to Nigeria’s Bayelsa United FC in Sapele last Saturday, which saw them crash out of the Orange Caf Confederation Cup on a 3-2 aggregate. They had won the first leg of the second round 2-1 at BF.
Kudakwashe Musharu, who joined How Mine from relegated Monomotapa, will be the man to watch.
After bowing out of the Orange Caf Champions League, Dynamos won the Bob 90 Super Cup beating Bulawayo giants Highlanders 2-0 and last week beat Harare City 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out in the semi-final of the Independence Trophy.
Both coaches Philani “Beefy” Ncube and Dynamos Kalisto Pasuwa have an axe to grind against each other with How Mine also having bundled Dynamos out of the Mbada Diamonds Cup last year.
The league champions will be without the injured pair of Masimba Mambare and Clive Kawinga while Partson Jaure is serving suspension.
Dynamos are planning to appeal against it almost six months after he was banned.
