BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
CAPS United shot to the top of the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League standings yesterday, despite being held to a goalless draw by a resilient FC Platinum in an entertaining Africa Day fixture at Rufaro Stadium.
While the special holiday fixture provided exciting football for the fans, the afternoon was largely defined by a frustrating lack of goals.
The single point gained at Rufaro was enough to elevate Makepekepe to the summit of the league table, moving them to 28 points. They sit just one point ahead of Hardrock, whose Sunday fixture against Dynamos in Kwekwe was abandoned due to crowd trouble.
Yesterday's result marks a trend of missed opportunities for the Green Machine. It was Caps United’s third consecutive draw, following a 2-2 stalemate with MWOS and a 1-1 deadlock against Simba Bhora over the past two weeks.
For FC Platinum, the away point stretches their impressive unbeaten run to five matches. Pure Platinum Play has now moved up to ninth place on the log, commanding 20 points from 14 matches.
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Despite the lack of goals, both camps found positives in the high-energy encounter, though the pressure to convert performances into maximum points remains high.
FC Platinum coach Joel Luphahla was pleased with the point.
“I’m proud of what the boys have done. I think it was an exciting game. People enjoyed Africa Day and came to watch good football like this. In the second half, I think with a bit of luck, we could have gotten the win,” he said.
“I’m very proud to come here and get a point. When we go back home, we’ll try to make sure that we get the full set of points, because if you draw away and don’t win at home, that point counts for nothing. I’m hopeful the boys will go home and perform well against Herentals. Playing at home, we want to take advantage of that. This point will come in handy.”
Caps United assistant coach Ian Bakala rued the missed chances.
We had a lot of chances. Despite missing a few good opportunities, we still created chances. No matter how you play football, at the end of the day, we all need the ball in the net, which we are missing. Our plan worked despite not scoring, but the only thing remaining is that the team is not scoring,” he said.
“We are missing a lot of chances that other teams are converting. We just have to continue working on training so that we improve our finishing. That is the only thing that is remaining.”
With 28 points in the bag, Caps United hold a slim one-point lead over second-placed Hardrock, who still have a pending decision regarding their abandoned match.
Meanwhile, FC Platinum’s steady resurgence sees them climbing into ninth place.
While Caps United will celebrate sitting at the summit of Zimbabwean football today, the Green Machine knows they must quickly find their scoring boots if they are to sustain a genuine title charge and turn single-point draws into three-point victories.