BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
HERENTALS…….(0) 2
CAPS UNITED….(2) 3
FREE-SCORING striker William Manondo shot to the top of the goal scoring charts after his last-minute winner inspired Caps United to victory in a thriller against Herentals at the National Sports Stadium yesterday.
Manondo capitalised on a blunder by the Herentals goalkeeper Kudakwashe Mukuura to score and spare Caps United the blushes after they had wasted a two-goal lead at halftime.
It was Monondo’s second goal of the afternoon, which took his tally thus far to an impressive eight goals in nine matches, a goal ahead of Chicken Inn’s Brian Muza and Nyasha Chintuli of Manica Diamonds.
Manondo had earlier put Makepekepe ahead with a clinical finish in the 29th minute before Rodwell Chinyengetere doubled the lead two minutes before half-time.
Caps United almost wasted the two-goal halftime lead when they conceded two goals in a space of two minutes as Herentals came to life when the club owner Innocent Benza, who was struggling to cope with the pace of the game made way for his son Tino at the start of the second half.
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Herentals gave themselves a lifeline when substitute Tafadzwa Jimu found the target with a close range tap-in from the overlap in the 59th minute before former Caps United son John Zhuwawu punished his former team’s poor defending with a close range finish a minute later.
The teams were evenly poised after that and Herentals would have been worthy of a point, but they wasted the opportunity when Mukuura lost possession of the ball to Manondo in the last minute of regulation time and the veteran striker made no mistake from close range.
Caps United coach Lloyd Chitembwe applauded Herentals for giving his charges a tough match but also bemoaned his player’s lapse in concentration at the start of the season.
“Credit to our opponents they also changed the way they played especially in the second half. They threw caution to the wind and pushed more players upfront and pushed us to make some changes. We did the changes where we wanted to make sure we were no longer giving them those spaces but obviously, I’m disappointed that we lost concentration in the second half. I thought we had done enough to win the match especially in the first half,” Chitembwe said.
Herentals coach Kumbirai Mutiwekuziva felt the last minute gaffe by his goalkeeper cost his side what would have been a deserved point.
“We just need to minimise the mistakes, we had a very good game especially in the second half, but unfortunately our goalkeeper made the blunder but in terms of the performance we are okay,” he said.
Premier League matchday nine results and fixtures
Yesterday: ZPC Kariba 0-1 Tenax, Herentals 2-3 Caps United, Black Rhinos 2-1 Bulawayo Chiefs, Ngezi Platinum Stars 0-2 Chicken Inn, Bulawayo City 1-3 Triangle
Today: Whawha v Cranborne Bullets (Ascot), Manica Diamonds v FC Platinum (Sakubva), Harare City v Dynamos (National Sports Stadium), Highlanders v Yadah (Barbourfields)
