Bosso vs DeMbare match abandoned again

By Lovemore Dube

Highlanders …………. (1) 1 Dynamos ……….(0) 2

(Match abandoned two minutes into time added on)

The battle of Zimbabwe was abandoned on Sunday, two minutes into time added on, after violence once again marred a clash between Highlanders and Dynamos at Barbourfields. Police had to fire teargas to try and contain the commotion.

The home team’s fans, apparently angered by Dynamos’ second goal deep into time added on, threw missiles onto the pitch and — for the second successive game featuring the two giants — the match had to come to an end prematurely.

The Bosso fans’ anger had apparently been raised by a number of decisions, made by Bulawayo referee Thabani Mnkantjo, which appeared to go against their side. One was a first half penalty appeal after Guthrie Zhokinyi appeared to have used his hand to block the ball inside the box.

The second incident was when DeMbare equalised with six minutes left in regulation time. Francis Kanda was fouled and Gift Lunga played the ball out of touch surprisingly in his own half. He was to be a culprit as Dynamos scored the equaliser, straight from that dead ball, with a stunning volley by Evans Gwekwerere.

Kanda had fired Bosso into the lead in the 27th minute and, for a long time during the match, the Bulawayo giants appeared on course for victory. The talking point was when Lunga pushed the ball out of play with Kanda injured.

Mnkantjo appeared to signal a Highlanders throw-in but his assistant, who had noted that Bosso were the last to play the ball, waved to signal that it was the visitors’ ball.

In a flash Dynamos took the throw-in and, from an acute angle, Gwekwerere — out-of-sorts for the better part of the afternoon — fired home one of the best goals scored at Barbourfields. It was a cracker.

Highlanders were later dealt a sad blow in the 87th minute when Zhokinyi made them pay for sloppy defending by rising high above the home team’s defence to beat goalkeeper Arial Sibanda with a powerful header.

The match was a tale of two halves with Highlanders dominant in the first. Dynamos were by far the better team in the second half with the introduction of Benjamin Marere and skipper Desmond Maringwa turning around their fortunes.

DeMbare were, however, the first to take the initiative in the opening stages of the match with former Jomo Cosmos striker Gwekwerere testing Sibanda with a 30 metre shot that the Highlanders goalkeeper collected, with a bit of acrobatics, to the delight of the Bosso faithful in a big 13 000 crowd.

A neat passing attack in the 18th minute involving Eric Mudzingwa saw four passes being switched between Rahman Kutsanzira and Kanda, but Kutsanzira did not finish off a good move with the Dynamos defence at sea. Highlanders eventually got the lead in the 27th minute when Joel Ngodzo took a corner kick on the left flank.

He directed it to the far post and impressive Highlanders central defender Innocent Mapu-ranga nodded it back to the centre of the box with Kanda obliging with his first goal for Highlanders — a well-executed header that gave Washington Arubi no chance in goal.

Bosso came back hunting eight minutes later with Mudzingwa blazing over the bar at point blank range. He had been set up by Kanda who had exchanged some good passes on the right with the workaholic Mudzingwa.

Dynamos’ turn to score came in the 43rd minute and Gwekwekwerere shot wide with an acrobatic kick in the box after being set up from the right flank by Murape Murape.

Bosso came close to making it to 2-0 in the 49th minute when Ngodzo’s full-blooded effort from a deadball situation, 25 metres out, missed the upright by a few inches with Zimbabwe goalkeeper Arubi beaten.

Lunga came close on 67 minutes with Arubi denying him with a good save. In the 81st minute Dynamos’ stocky leftback Brighton Tuwaya waltzed his way past the Bosso midfield and found room to pull the trigger, but his effort just missed the left upright.

But DeMbare kept asking questions and were duly rewarded for their industry with a superb Gwekwekwerere strike in the 84th minute. Substitute Simba Gate had a good chance to give the home team the lead again but, after finding space inside the box, he sent his effort horribly wide. In such big games you pay for wasting such golden chances.

And moments later Zhokinyi powered home his header to turn the game on its head. It was too much for the Bosso fans to stomach and, two minutes to full-time, fans on the Soweto Stand sent both Highlanders and Dynamos players scurrying for cover with a flurry of missiles.

It was the second missile throwing incident of the afternoon after Dynamos supporters had also thrown missiles onto the pitch earlier in the match. Fans then tried to pull down the security fence on the Soweto end with skirmishes seen between police, Bosso marshals and a number of hooligans.

Police, who seemed hesitant to pick out the hooligans, had to disperse fans from that stand and in the end some, who were evidently not violent and had their hands up in surrender stance, were not spared the water powerjets from the special crowd control tankers from Unit Fairbridge.

The tankers then pursued the fans outside the stadium. Mnkantjo, concurring with his match assessor, then decided that the match could no longer proceed. It was another sad day for the Zimbabwean game as hooliganism took its toll on a good match.

Surprisingly no senior Highlanders official could be seen trying to calm down tempers as their team’s supporters went berserk. Clubs, especially Dynamos and Highlanders, still have a long way in teaching their followers to respect the referees’ decisions.

The wisdom of the Premier Soccer League management committee to fixture the two teams hardly three weeks after their Banc-ABC Sup8r semi-final clash which was abandoned will also be questioned.

A decision is yet to be made after Highlanders felt natural justice had been infringed upon when an arbitration committee found them culpable for the abandoned match.

Teams

Highlanders: A Sibanda, B Choto, F Kanda (S Gate 85th minute), R Kutsanzira (P Kabwe 46th minute), G Lunga, I Mapuranga, E Mudzingwa, M Mupera, B Ndlovu, J Ngodzo, Z Ngodzo.

Dynamos: W Arubi, P Sithole, B Tuwaya, E Mashiri (K Banda 74th minute), M Murape, T Kamusoko (D Maringwa 46th minute), E Gwekwerere, W Sithole (B Marere 46th minute), G Zhokinyu, M Mahala, T Mamvura.