Caps United . . . . . . . . (0) 2 Harare City . . . . . . . . (0) 1
CAPS UNITED showed the character of true champions when they overcame the loss of Joel Ngodzo with a quarter of an hour to play, to beat city rivals Harare City in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match played at the National Sports Stadium yesterday.
BY HENRY MHARA
Ngodzo, a second half substitute, was shown a straight red card by referee Norman Matemera in the 73rd minute for a high boot challenge on James Jam with his team leading by a goal to nil, courtesy of Tafadzwa Rusike’s 55th minute goal.
Substitute Jerry Chipangura’s deflected shot in the 82nd minute brought City level, and the Sunshine Boys looked like they could go on to win it, but Ronald Pfumbidzai made sure the Green Machine collected their first set of maximum points with a cool finish two minutes later.
As for City, it was another poor result after they were held by league newcomers Yadah Gunners last week.
United coach, Lloyd Chitembwe was delighted his side won the match.
“We are very happy we got the result. We were one man less and still went on to get the result that we so much desired, that’s a mark of greatness within this team,” he said.
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City coach, Mike Madzivanyika said his players lost concentration after equalising and were duly punished.
“We played a good game and if we had been accurate in front of goal, we could have won this game. I’m disappointed, I can’t be happy because we had better chances after the red card. If we had put in a little bit extra effort, the result could have been different.”
The two teams started the match slowly with the first real chance of the match coming after 27 minutes when the City defence was caught off-guard with Caps forward Abbasi Amidu hitting the upright post.
Harare City nearly took the lead in first half additional time when a Malvin Gaki cross was miscued by Justice Jangano and just cleared the cross bar.
Chitembwe made a double change at the start of the second half, introducing Rusike and Ngodzo for the ineffective duo of Ronald Chitiyo and Moses Muchenje, which brought about a bit of life into his team.
They started to move the ball faster and more purposefully, using the length and width of the pitch effectively.
Abbasi used power to beat his marker on the right before crossing the ball to Phineas Bhamusi, who laid it to Rusike, who finished it off with aplomb.
City threw numbers forward and goalkeeper, Jorum Muchambo, holding fort for the injured Edmore Sibanda, kept his side in the match with a super save in the 80th minute blocking a Tinashe Balakasi effort from the six-yard box.
Madzivanyika’s side continued to apply pressure and finally broke United’s resistance when Chipangura was given too much room outside the box to take aim and his shot took a slight deflection to beat Muchambo.
But the champions roared back immediately, Pfumbidzai getting to the end of a Rusike pass inside the box to beat Nyamupangedengu.
Teams:
Caps United: J Muchambo, H Zvirekwi, R Pfumbidzai, J Jangano, D Dauda, C Kamhapa, M Muchenje (J Ngodzo, 46′), R Chitiyo (T Rusike, 46′), P Bhamusi, A Amidu (J Ngulube, (62′), D Chungwa
Harare City: M Nyamupangedengu, T Chimwemwe, P Mpelele, J Tigere, R Uchena, F Madhananga, J Jam (J Chipangura, 76′), W Muvirimi (P Kabwe, 51′), M Vengesai (T Tumba, 60′), M Gaki, T Balakasi
