BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
CAPS UNITED . . . . . 0
ZPC KARIBA . . . . (0) 1
AN own goal by Caps United defender Marshal Machazane handed ZPC Kariba a crucial victory that piled more misery on the Harare football giants in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match at the National Sports Stadium yesterday.
Caps United went into the match hoping to stop a run of dreadful results, which had seen them lose six successive matches before the two-week break.
However, yesterday’s defeat stretched their dismal run to seven defeats, which equals the unwanted record of 2012.
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Caps United coach Lloyd Chitembwe, who took the Harare football giants to the prestigious African Champions League where he defied odds to reach the lucrative group stage of the competition, feels the poor run of results has had a negative effect on his impressive CV.
Yesterday’s result dragged them into the relegation matrix in 14th place on the table with a paltry 17 points.
ZPC Kariba jumped a rung above Caps United with 18 points to move away from relegation.
“Its very deflating and very disappointing,” Chitembwe said in his post-match interview.
“This will obviously rank among the poorest phases of my career and it’s very disappointing. I thought performance wise, it was a decent performance, but we needed more than just a decent performance.
“We needed more guts, we needed more courage, we needed to have character knowing what is at stake. We have not won for quite a number of games. It’s extremely disappointing if you look at how we conceded that goal. I thought the situation was under control, but just one mistake or two and failure to communicate, it costs you.”
His counterpart Rodwell Dhlakama admitted Caps United were dominant, but failed to utilise their chances.
“The most important thing is we won the game inasmuch as we did not play very well. The opposition created a lot of chances which they failed to utilise,” Dhlakama said.
“We got our chance and we scored and managed to hold on. What is important for us is to move away from relegation because you play under a lot of pressure and moving away from relegation is important for the fans. We are not for relegation.”
Caps United were superior from the onset as they dominated possession for long periods.
They, however, failed to convert their superiority into goals as they squandered the chances that came their way.
Winger Phineas Bhamusi and striker William Manondo both missed chances on 25 minutes following a good cross into the danger zone by Thulani Joseph.
Joseph was also guilty of a miss five minutes later, failing to connect a wonderful cross from the right by Kelvin Bulaji as Caps United went on the offensive.
He missed another chance at the stroke of the first half, sending his effort wide of target after goalkeeper Tapiwa Chilenga came out of his line to narrow the angle.
However, the visitors came back from the break looking determined and they were rewarded on 64 minutes when Samuel Makawa’s seemingly harmless shot deflected off Machazane and rolled into the nets to give them the precious points.