Blue Ribbon . . . . . . . . (1) 2 Caps United . . . . . . . . . . . 0
High-flying Caps United were brought down to earth by a flowing Blue Ribbon team which halted the Green Machine’s unbeaten run in an exciting Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match at Rufaro Stadium on Thursday.
The defeat did not go down well with a militant section of Caps supporters who hurled obscenities at coach Moses Chunga after the match.
Impressive Talent Munetsi put the Tamba Wakaguta boys in front as early as the eighth minute before Daniel Kamunenga sealed the Green Machine’s fate 10 minutes after the break.
Tapiwa Kumbuyani and Kamunenga were denied by the woodwork as Blue Ribbon outplayed their more fancied opponents.
The result left the Premiership new boys at the top of the log with 10 points while the Green Machine slumped to third position.
Chicken Inn, who also have amassed 10 points, are still in second position after their 1 – 0 win over Black Mambas in another Premiership match played at Morris Depot on Thursday.
Blue Ribbon assistant coach Laban Kandi was impressed with the way his charges outplayed the opposition.
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“We played our normal game and I must say I’m very happy with the way the boys expressed themselves today,” said the former Dynamos goalminder.
“All the boys put more than 100% and with a bit of luck we could have scored more goals. The instruction to the boys was simple, we told them to close down the Caps United midfielders and it worked well for us,” added Kandi.
Caps United coach Chunga had a torrid time as he exchanged harsh words with the team’s supporters but managed to calm down.
“It’s one of those games that even if we had been given another eight hours we would still have been beaten,” conceded Chunga.
“We were just out of it, we didn’t create anything for the entire match and we didn’t deserve to win today,” he added.
On supporters’ confrontational conduct, a visibly angry Chunga said: “This is the kind of behaviour I don’t want. You can’t swear at me like that. They are infringing on my rights. We hadn’t lost a game until today but they are already on me.”
Chunga made two changes to the team that embarrassed Shabanie Mine last week, bringing in Tapiwa Mangezi and Charles Chiutsa in place of Pride Tafirenyika and Norest Mukwezaramba but the changes failed to pay off as they were overrun in midfield with Stephen Alimenda clearly fighting a lone battle.
Blue Ribbon took the game to Caps United from the outset and could have scored in the first minute but Kamunenga surprisingly shot wide from inside the six-yard box after some good work from striker Felix Kutswatuka on the left.
They continued to bombard the Green Machine’s half of the field and in the first three minutes, they had three clear-cut chances with Tinei Chitora and Kutswatuka denied by goalkeeper Edmore Sibanda while Munetsi hit the side net.
It did not came as a surprise when they finally broke the deadlock. Munetsi capitalised on some sloppy defending by Caps defenders who failed to clear their lines from a corner kick to blast home from close range.
Kamunenga added the cushion goal early in the second half when he was left clear in the box to connect a Munetsi cross with a header past a stranded Sibanda.
