Mutasa lauds DeMbare spirit
While there is no room to celebrate mediocrity at the Glamour Boys, who have won a record 21 Zimbabwean titles, this second place finish feels more like success for those around the club.
At the start of the season, most people expected DeMbare to struggle after releasing a number of senior players while they also lost several key players.
Dynamos coach – Lloyd Mutasa
Roderick Mutuma, Stephen Alimenda and Jacob Muzokomba were all released and the club failed to keep hold of Brett Amidu, Godknows Murwira, Dominic Mukandi and star goalkeeper Tatenda Mkuruva signed for Absa Premiership side Cape Town City for free after running down his contract.
Dynamos’ identical 0-1 defeats at home to FC Platinum, How Mine and Black Rhinos and a 2-2 draw away to Triangle in the first five games did not inspire any confidence.
Mutasa, however, managed to turn around the fortunes of the Harare giants and just missed out on the title by two points.
“I would like to applaud the Dynamos players and the institution for giving it a go until the death,” Mutasa said following his side’s 1-0 win over Chicken Inn at the National Sports Stadium at the weekend.
“Many ruled us out when the season got underway but here we are. However, you know that when you are at Dynamos second best is not good enough.
“I would like to say congratulations to Norman Mapeza and his team. I think they did a fantastic job to beat us by two points.”
After their early struggles, Dynamos recovered with a five-match unbeaten streak starting with a 3-1 win over ZPC Kariba at home in May which was followed up with wins over Ngezi Platinum Stars (3-2), Bulawayo City (4-3), Bantu Rovers (2-0) before Chicken Inn held them 0-0 in Bulawayo.
From there on, the Glamour Boys remained firmly in the league title race that also involved Ngezi Platinum Stars and Chicken Inn before FC Platinum eventually stood firm in the last few weeks. DailyNews
