DYNAMOS coach Lloyd Mutasa has so much to ponder as he prepares his bleeding team for this weekend’s big clash against Caps United, a game that could potentially be decisive on his future at the club.
BY HENRY MHARA
His team is going into the big Harare Derby — their biggest match of the season — in their worst form in the league since the turn of the millennium, with only three points on the board from a possible 18.
It’s perhaps too early to judge, but their current position on the log standings does not give a pleasant reading.
Languishing second from the bottom on the log, Mutasa knows his team will need to show plenty of grit from now on, if they are to come out of the hole they have found themselves in.
That means collecting maximum points against their number one enemy Caps United, a result that could possibly do a world of wonders not only to the team’s championship hopes, but to Mutasa’s immediate future.
For a man under so much pressure, Mutasa remarkably looked serene after his team’s chaotic 1-1 draw against Yadah FC at Rufaro Stadium, calmly assuring the club’s increasingly restless supporters not to press the panic button.
He is hopeful that the Caps United match would be the occasion when his team would finally turn around their fortunes.
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“As a coach, you would just want to come out victorious ahead of a derby match so that you have the confidence going in there,” Mutasa said.
“But in these derbies, it’s all about who is hungrier. We go back in training and see how the boys will be executing their duties. I think it’s another tough assignment in front of us, but I’m sure it would be the day that we break the jinx.”
Dynamos’ biggest problem thus far has been their failure to get goals, only finding the target in the 3-3 draw against Shabanie and in Sunday’s match.
Mutasa has previously bemoaned the absence of Christian Ntouba, who has since quit the club.
But Mutasa, it appears, has found encouragement from a rather unlikely source, Kuda Kumwala.
The former Harare City man, who joined at the start of the season, was the liveliest of the DeMbare forwards in Sunday’s match, a performance he capped with a bullet goal for the equaliser.
Although he had missed a glorious chance before that, failing to connect a cross with the goal gaping, Mutasa believes the lanky man is the answer to the team’s scoring woes.
“Kuda was starting here and there, coming in as a substitute, but if you look at the number of attempts that he had today (Sunday), you can only but hope for a better future. It’s unfortunate that he had a header that eluded him. He has been working hard in training and he has been rewarded. We hope that this goal will bring confidence in him and these youngsters. You feel there was an element in the team, to say ‘we cannot score’, but since we have scored one today, psychologically, they are better prepared and we will take it from here,” he said.
“We not happy, we are still in search of three points, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of breaking the duck. Looking at probably the creativity and chances that came our way and the conversion rate, it is not directly proportional, so it’s an area that we are working on. It’s still work in progress, but at least we are happy that we managed to score a goal, and you can only but think of scoring two or more going forward.”
Caps United will also go into the match with their tails firmly tucked in, following a 2-1 defeat away to Triangle on Sunday.
The Green Machine supporters will certainly argue that result was just a minor blip, and normal service should resume at the weekend.
United have managed nine points, from two wins and three draws.
