Yadah hold ZPC Kariba

By Tadious Manyepo

Yadah coach Thomas Ruzive was impressed by his charges’ tremendous fighting spirit when rallying back to force a share of the spoils against plucky ZPC Kariba in this exciting Premiership tie at Rufaro yesterday.

Star winger Leeroy Mavhunga converted from the spot for Ruzive’s men 20 minutes from time to cancel Francisco Zekumbawira’s opener in the first half.

And for a team which is fighting for their dear life in the top-flight to rally back into the match against a side which was in total control of proceedings was an encouraging sign for Ruzive, who remains adamant his side will survive the chop.

Yadah remained 14th on the log, but crucially moved a point away from the drop zone with only five rounds of matches remaining.

With a little bit of better execution on the part of their strikers, Yadah should actually have wrapped the match especially towards the end when they were clearly the dominant side.

But, whatever their gameplan was, Ruzive’s troops were forced to alter it a bit as they found themselves trailing on the half-hour mark when Zekumbawira’s instinctive shot on the turn off a David Temwanjera low cross, deceived Stephen Chimusoro to nestle into the bottom corner.

With relegation worries seemingly creeping into their minds and things going the other way round in the tense first half, Yadah even became more desperate as wayward shooting and some poor decision making affected their game.

But, Ruzive appeared to have hammered his boys with the right half-time message as they came back from the breather somewhat more composed.

Although they launched a barrage of attacks especially from the channels where Mavhunga and Leeroy Murape were bossing, ZPC Kariba were unyielding until a clumsy challenge by Tawanda Munyanduri on Johannes Sibanda just inside the box earned them a penalty.

An increasingly maturing Mavhunga coolly converted for the Harare side, sending Takabva Mawaya the wrong way to ensure a share of the spoils.

Although ZPC Kariba, who themselves are still in danger, at least mathematically, also had their chances and probed the Yadah goal especially in the final moments, but lacked the much-needed coordination in the attacking third, allowing the hosts to clear their lines always.

“This point is very crucial given that we need to avoid relegation. This point is key and I am happy my boys fought for it” said Ruzive.

“We have to keep on fighting and I am confident that we will avoid relegation at the end of the day.

“We were supposed to avoid that early goal against ZPC Kariba. It forced us to change our original game plan. We were clumsy at the back for a moment,” he said.

While Ruzive saw it as a point gained rather than two dropped, his ZPC Kariba counterpart Godfrey Tamirepi was disappointed and reckoned his team deserved to walk away from Rufaro with all three points in the bag.

“I am not happy with the result, we were supposed to get all the three points considering that we had a very good start especially after we got that early goal,” said Tamirepi.

Teams:

Yadah Stars:

Chimusoro, B. Madzokere, A. Makopa, W. Chakanyuka, W. Kalongonda, Z. Bizeki, B. Mapfumo (D. Savanhu 66th min), L. Murape (M. Meleka 53rd min) , L. Mavhunga, J. Sibanda, R. Mathema
ZPC Kariba:

Mawaya, T. Renthokoane, M. Kunyarimwe, S. Appiah (G. Mangani 46th min), I. Nekati, T. Munyanduri, C. Muleya, M. Demera (T. Nyamandwe 77th min), S. Gorogodyo, D. Temwanjera, F. Zekumbawira(P. Tafirenyika 77th min)  The Herald