BY FORTUNE MBELE Highlanders and Caps United, two of the country’s biggest teams, might be currently immersed in the mid table zone of irrelevance. Their chances of winning the league title this term seem to have long evaporated even though mathematically they still stand a chance.
They might be having a season to forget, but what their clash can almost guarantee, judging by the history of their contests, is high entertainment.
These are two teams that are built on entertaining their fans and whenever they have a go at each other, they produce some of the best contests.
Tomorrow, Barbourfields will host the next episode of the two teams’ contest and despite them fighting for scraps while Dynamos, FC Platinum and Chicken Inn contest for the big prize, it should be another thriller.
Caps United’s inhouse troubles threatened to spoil the much-anticipated fun, but guarantees have been given that the Green Machine players will walk onto the BF greens with the same desire and hunger to outdo the home side.
Tomorrow’s clash becomes the 10th league game the two giants have played since 2016 when Caps United won the league championship, in which the Green Machine have won twice, Highlanders once and they have played six draws.
In July 2016, Highlanders hosted Lloyd Chitembwe’s side at Barbourfields Stadium and emerged 1-0 victors, before travelling to the capital a few days later to fall by the same scoreline.
The following year, Caps United beat the Bulawayo giants 3-1 in Harare in July and hit the road to BF where the two sides settled for a 1-1 stalemate in November.
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In 2018, goalless draws were played between the two sides in Bulawayo and Harare while in 2019 Caps United held Highlanders to another goalless draw at BF before claiming victory at the National Sports Stadium in a 2-1 win.
For the 2021-2022 season, Highlanders travelled to Harare in March this year and the two sides played a 1-1 draw at the National Sports Stadium with goals coming from Clive Augusto for Caps and Nqobizitha Masuku for the Bulawayo giants.
As the two sides wrap up their meetings this year tomorrow, circumstances have changed with Highlanders having changed coaches from Mandla Mpofu to Portuguese national Baltemar Brito while Caps United is in turmoil with players engaged in an industrial action over unpaid dues but have committed to tomorrow’s tie.
Highlanders have a spring in their step after they hammered Triangle to sail through to the quarter-finals of the Chibuku Super Cup while Caps United were booted out by Black Rhinos in the first round.
The Bulawayo giants’ assistant coach Joel Luphahla has warned the Highlanders players not read into what is happening in their opponents’ camp.
“This is a game where we are trying to improve our standings. We are trying to push a little bit further but we have been reading also in the news about what is happening at Caps United, but I just want to say to my boys that we must not read much into what is happening there because Caps United have always performed better especially when they are going through these challenges. So we may think they are not training and we relax and that it is going to be a walk in the park. They will be motivated. At times when you go on strike, you want to give more to the management because they will be like you didn’t train the whole week and we gave you the money, so you have to be motivated because this is a big game,” Luphahla said.
Highlanders are without suspended central defender Peter Muduwha while midfielder Adrian Silla is also out nursing an injury.
The Bulawayo giants are on position six on the log table with 35 points while their counterparts tomorrow have not fared well in the league despite their last two wins and sit on position 12 with 29 points.
- Follow Fortune on Twitter @fmbele
