BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
Harare City…….. (0)1
CAPS United…… (1)2
STRIKER William Manondo scored a goal in each half as Caps United won their first match in eight matches, beating city rivals Harare City in an action-packed Castle Lager Premier Soccer League encounter at the National Sports Stadium yesterday.
Makepekepe avoided the ignominy of losing eight consecutive matches after they last week equalled their longest losing streak of seven, which they endured in 2012.
The Lloyd Chitembwe-coached side also scored their first goal in seven matches as Munondo also ended a nine-match goal drought with two strikes that saw him rise to the summit of the top scorer’s chats.
Manondo moved his tally to 11, one ahead of Chicken Inn’s Brian Muza who is on 10.
⚽️ @capsunitedfczw vs @hararecityfc⚽️William Manondo celebrates as he scores in 17mins into the game.📸:@stozvirevaa pic.twitter.com/ypuEDPWA5f
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— NewsDay Zimbabwe (@NewsDayZimbabwe) July 2, 2022
The defeat was Harare City’s third in a row as they have failed to win in their last six matches.
It was an eventful match in which Harare City ended with 10 men after Tyler Mugoniwa was stretchered off late in the game minutes after coming on after a clash of heads with Tichaona Macheka.
Halfway through the first half CAPS United’s Ian Nyoni was also stretchered off after he was hit in the face by the ball.
Two other Harare City players goalkeeper Kelvin Shangiwa and Innocent Zambezi had to be pulled out injured.
But the big story of the day was the win by the Green Machine, which was their first since April 10.
“I am very pleased with the result, it’s been a while and we are happy. Today we didn’t play that well, but the result was very good. Last week we played very well, but the result was not there.
“You need this kind of result to give you confidence going into the next match,” Chitembwe said after the match.
CAPS United showed their intentions to end the embarrassing run of defeats early as Shangiwa turned the impressive Joseph Tulani’s round the post for a corner inside five minutes.
Manondo broke the deadlock in the 17th minute, sweeping Joseph Tulani’s cross from the right from close range to complete a swift counterattack move.
Tulani watched in agony as his header from a Macheka cross crashed onto the upright post and bounced back into play with Shangiwa beaten.
With Harare City starting the second half brightly in search of the equaliser, it was CAPS United, who doubled the lead, Manondo converting from the penalty spot seven minutes after the restart.
Harare City pulled one back just after the half-hour mark with Zorodzai Semure blasting home from close range.
Mugoniwa’s injury after Harare City had already used all their substitution slots made it difficult for the hosts to launch a successful comeback.
Harare City coach Taurai Mangwiro praised his charges for putting up a brave fight.
“I want to give credit to my boys for the manner in which they fought. It has been a turbulent week for us and our situation was compounded when Clive Rupiya got injured during warm-up. We had to make a last-minute change,” Mangwiro said.
“We had two injury-inspired substitutions and it kind of upset our own rhythm and to make matters worse we had the goalkeeper unable to continue and at some stage we were playing with 10 men after Tyler got injured. It’s unfortunate that we lost but the boys put up a big fight.”
