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NewsDay

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Jongwe exposed in derby defeat

Sport
The big losers in the Harare Derby were obviously Caps United and sympathies go towards the thousands of their fans countrywide. They have seen a bright start to the 2011 Premier Soccer League season fall, first into a draw session leading to the departure of Moses Chunga back to Gunners, and later a second embarrassing […]

The big losers in the Harare Derby were obviously Caps United and sympathies go towards the thousands of their fans countrywide.

They have seen a bright start to the 2011 Premier Soccer League season fall, first into a draw session leading to the departure of Moses Chunga back to Gunners, and later a second embarrassing defeat to the blue half of Harare.

Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe took over the reins just three weeks ago from Chunga.

And he has been winless, drawing 0-0 against Gunners in his first match in charge before losing the return 2-0, although it was abandoned with 21 minutes to play, before losing to Dynamos on Sunday.

The Caps lot is an angry group and made it clear in the abandoned match that they were not amused by the direction the club was taking. They expressed themselves in an illegal manner which has bounced back to the club which now has to fork out a fine and lose three points to Gunners.

Violence is certainly not the solution, not at all, but perhaps the two big men at the club —Twine Phiri and Farai Jere — have to take a serious look at their technical bench.

Caps is a big club, the third most successful team in the country after Dynamos and Highlanders and as such fans demand that they do better. There are no excuses here, unfortunately. To coach a big club needs two things — history and character.

Jongwe does not have history on his side to handle Caps United, his assistant Alois Bunjira might have played in South Africa for a number of years and studied journalism in the process, but he does not have character to handle the Green Machine.

Rodwell Dhlakama seems to be the man with some history in there. He took over from Norman Mapeza when the Warriors coach quit Monomotapa after winning the league title in 2008 and led the team to the group stages of the African Champions League.

He is the second man after Sunday Chidzambwa to achieve that feat and that history alone, gives him character to handle Caps. That is not to suggest that Jongwe must be fired, this is to merely say you cannot just wake up as Dynamos, Highlanders or Caps United coach.

One needs history and character, or, at least the willingness to last the distance.

At the National Sports Stadium on Sunday, Jongwe fell short when he removed David Rediyoni and replaced him with Charles Chiutsa. That killed the drive in the Caps midfield as Chiutsa was seemingly struggling with fitness.

Rediyoni, for those who know him during his days at Gunners, will know that like Willard “Bute” Katsande, he is a powerful driver from inside the midfield, who scores crucial goals and is good at set pieces.

That mistake by Jongwe allowed Farai Vimisayi, Timire Mamvura, Tawanda Muparati and Martin Vengesayi to add pace to their game without exposing their back line and that technical coup allowed Dynamos coach Lloyd Mutasa to walk away with three points.

Jongwe failed to read that change in rhythm. In fact, tactics should have changed after taking the lead, but alas, he saw no reason to do so and lost it. And that has left Caps travelling without a shepherd. Now Caps have plunged to seventh place with 22 points while their rivals are keeping check on Motor Action (34) and FC Platinum (36), maintain third place with 29 points.

The defending champions thumped Masvingo 3-1 at Mucheke while Platinum edged Kiglon 2-1 on Saturday for their 11th win of the season.