• Dynamos players boycott Friday's training • Dynamos' season threatened by player revolt • Stuffed in the CBZ Cup, H'landers resigned to league humiliation • Highlanders surrender crown to Dynamos • CBZ to sponsor soccer stars banquet • Ntini 14th premiership coach to lose job • Dynamos inch closer to league title • Dynamos players walk out over bonuses • Barbourfields to host CBZ Cup final • Dynamos stretch lead as Highlanders crash • PSL probes match-fixing claims • Lengthens official says players paid to lose match • Late penalty keeps Dynamos ahead • 2007 Premier Soccer League Fixtures

By Nkanyiso Moyo

IT SAYS a lot for Dynamos’ superiority this season that they can go all week without kicking a ball, even in frustration at their poor pay, then turn up on Sunday and blow away Shooting Stars to be crowned 2007 CBZ Premier Soccer League champions.

A week that began with uncertainty for Dynamos, after an ugly pay row following last week’s CBZ Cup final win over Highlanders, ended in their emphatic confirmation as a big force in Zimbabwean football again after a forgettable decade that threatened their existence.

Having almost enjoyed an unmitigated free reign over the same period, Highlanders had scornfully ignored Dynamos’ early charge in the title race this season. Why not, when they had claimed their sixth league title in a decade, a year previously, and Dynamos were lurching from managerial crises to player revolts?

So, it was with a touch of some irony then, that Dynamos had to win the league and cup double on a week that saw the club reel from the latest revolt over bonuses paid, or not paid, to players after last week’s 2-1 cup final win over Highlanders.

Such has been their strength in adversity, such was their hunger to overcome where surrender appeared the obvious course to take.

By the time Sebastian Mutizirwa scored Dynamos’ second after Murape Murape’s opener in the 2-0 win, a Highlanders inquest was underway in Bulawayo where the reigning champions lost 1-0 to Norman Mapeza’s Monomotapa. The defeat left them trailing Dynamos by an unassailable seven points with two matches to play.

In fact, Highlanders’ decline had been given a litmus treatment on Good Friday when they lost 2-1 to their old enemy at their Barbourfields fortress. From then on, every of their steps were a football equivalent of the limp of a diseased beast staggering towards a lifeless fall.

Further home defeats to Shooting Stars and Njube Sundowns were witnessed by diminishing crowds, their fans refusing to watch the gruesomely tedious last rites on a falling giant.

Murape Murape got the Dynamos party underway with his deflected shot just after six minutes, and Mutizirwa added a second seven minutes after the hour, a header from a Murape cross.

Reflecting on the win, David Mandigora admitted it couldn’t come any sooner. “It has been a hard, long season,” he sighed. “Finally the league and cup double is complete. Our major priority now is to beef up our squad for the Champions League.”

Dynamos’ final act in their systematic humiliation of Highlanders could yet be luring some of their top players to Harare, with Johannes Ngodzo, Danisa Phiri and goalkeeper Washington Arubi all thought to have already been sounded out.

Highlanders played like a team gripped by panic on Sunday, and a sombre mood enveloped Barbourfields as news filtered through from Harare of Dynamos’ relentless march towards the league title.

A win against Monomotapa would have kept their flickering hopes alive as that would have kept Dynamos’ lead at four points, taking the fight to the last two games of the season (At home against Mwana Africa and Lancashire Steel for Dynamos, and away to Eastern Lions and home to Hwange for Highlanders).

With time running out, every permitted Highlanders resource was deployed in the direction of the Monomotapa goal. The visitors reaped benefit, exploiting the defensive frailties of Highlanders’ attack football when Tendayi Gwaze crashed in the match winner seven minutes from the end.

And at the final whistle, Highlanders players slumped to the ground. Dejected. Some fans stayed longer on the terraces, reflecting on past glories and a season when they flattered to deceive.

Methembe Ndlovu, whose fairytale return to local football from America had started with a league title, will come under scrutiny as the Highlanders inquest gets into overdrive soon after the last ball in this campaign is kicked.

Advisably, he left the question of his future to the Highlanders management, but he will know as long as Willard Khumalo remains jobless (he was sacked by Mwana Africa after a decent spell), his job remains at risk – more endangered than that of an economist tackling Zimbabwe’s 15000% inflation.

“The disappointing part for me was the home defeats against Shooting Stars and Sundowns,” Ndlovu said on Sunday. “Confidence was really low from then on, but we fought until today. I am proud of the boys and the support from the fans, the executive and my assistants.

“There is always pressure when you coach a big club like Highlanders, and I went through a lot of it. Amhlophe (Congratulations) to Dynamos!”

Ndlovu would not be feeling reassured by chairman Ernest Sibanda’s post-match comments when asked if they would be reviewing the coach’s position.

He said: “It’s not the end of the world, we gave it our best. It pains to see two defeats in a row. As an executive, we will sit when the season ends where all crucial decisions are going to be made. For now, Methembe is still coach.”

Hwange and Mwana Africa’s frantic 4-0 and 3-1 victories over Sundowns and Eastern Lions did little to ease their relegation worries as Monomotapa, who occupy the first safety spot at the foot of the league table, beat Highlanders.

It is the fascinating intrigue of this season’s campaign that any of the teams from 5th on the log can still be relegated, and Mwana Africa, bringing the rear on 31 points, could still be a premiership club when the first ball is kicked next season.

CBZ Premier Soccer League Results (Week 28)

Shooting Stars 0-2 Dynamos, Highlanders 0-1 Monomotapa, Motor Action 1-0 CAPS FC, Lengthens 2-1 CAPS United, Mwana Africa 3-1 Eastern Lions, Hwange 4-0 Sundowns, Chapungu 0-0 Lancashire Steel, Black Rhinos 1-1 Masvingo

CBZ Premier Soccer League Table (25 November 2007)

TEAM		Played	Won	Drew	Lost	G/F	G/A	Points
1	Dynamos	28	17	5	4	36	15	58
2	Highlanders	28	15	6	7	41	24	51
3	Masvingo United	28	13	8	7	30	21	47
4	Njube Sundowns	28	11	5	12	31	34	38
5	Shooting Stars	28	10	7	11	35	36	37
*6	Lengthens	27	10	6	11	35	33	36
7	Chapungu United	28	10	6	12	31	35	36
8	Lancashire Steel	28	9	9	10	30	36	36
9	CAPS United	28	7	14	7	22	23	35
10	Monomotapa	28	10	5	13	26	36	35
11	Motor Action	28	10	5	13	34	38	35
12	Eastern Lions	28	7	12	9	25	28	33
13	CAPS FC	28	9	6	13	30	38	33
*14	Hwange	27	8	8	11	27	29	32
15	Black Rhinos	28	7	11	10	28	33	32
16	Mwana Africa	28	6	13	9	23	27	31
	*Match abandoned, awaiting PSL adjudication

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