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| Sports |
| Kamwendo, Haji taunt Wanderers |
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by
Garry Chirwa in Harare, Zimbabwe, 24 January 2005
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10:36:44
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Extravagantly gifted youthful midfielder Joseph Kamwendo made a fantastic beginning at Caps United on Saturday when he displayed a five-star show against his former club MTL Wanderers to inspire the Green Machine to a 3-1 victory in an international friendly game at the giant National Sports Stadium in Harare.
Kamwendo and homeboy Haji Tambala were thrown into service at the start of the second half and the duo showed no mercy in the demolition of their former team drawing all the attention to themselves.
While Tambala’s workrate was exceptional, it was Kamwendo who stole the show with a world-class performance that left the bewildered crowd a little out of breath.
Soon after the final whistle the overenthusiastic crowd rushed onto the pitch and swarmed all over Kamwendo. They carried him shoulder high to the dressing room entrance.
Caps’ coach Charles Mlhauli, who also doubles as caretaker coach for the national team, was left dumbfounded after the final whistle.
“This boy is fantastic. He will travel places if he can keep his cool. I now have an idea as to why the Malawian clubs were scrambling for him,” said Mlhauli after the game.
Kamwendo, Tambala and four others stepped off from the bench at half time to light up the contest which was a big yawn in the first half which ended goalless.
The game, which was supposed to kickoff at exactly 3PM was delayed for almost two hours following the hosts’ failure to apply for referees from Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) through the Premier Soccer League (PSL).
Chairman of Zimbabwe Referees Association Glademore Mzambi said Caps only communicated with PSL and Zifa on the game just 10 minutes prior to the game.
As time ticked on, the fans’ patience started wearing thin and it had to take the intervention of Zifa to cool them down.
Caps fashioned a succession of clear scoring opportunities in the dull first half and reached the interval kicking themselves for their failure to make them count.
Cometh the 46th minute, cometh the men. Just five minutes into the second half, Kamwendo created a corner kick which was well curled by David Sengu and Brian Baza climbed highest in the goal melee to plant home the opener.
However, the visibly clapped-up nomads, who only arrived in Harare from Blantyre at midnight ahead of the game, equalised through right winger Gerald Chimbaka who exploited the slightest hesitation in the Caps defence as he darted into the goal area and then lifted the ball over goalkeeper Tsungi Mdzamiri and the whole stadium was silenced.
The nomads’ new signing Moses Chavula struck a beauty three minutes later when he went on a devastating run, weaving his way past a forest of Caps defenders before finally slotting the ball home, surprisingly the referee Wonder Kalota disallowed it for off-side and relief was the prevalent emotion from the home crowd.
The disallowed goal took off the rhythm from the nomads and then came a moment of utter beauty when Caps’ dangerman Baza turned Aaron Nyasulu inside-out before squaring the ball to Tambala who punished his team with a classic finish.
Then Kamwendo inflicted further torment on his former club when he toyed almost sadistically with Semu Matemba on the left flank, leaving him embarrassingly in his wake as the fans cheered in appreciation of the lad’s skills.
The former had no choice but to bring down his naughty former team mate inviting the referee to award a free-kick and Sengu dispatched a ferocious drive from 25 metres which had a spin and power into the far right corner of the net. Game over? Yes.
Wanderers team manager Boniface Maganga and caretaker coach Bob Mpinganjira attributed the loss to fatigue.
Mpinganjira said: “We only arrived in the early hours of today and the boys were very tired, we did not have enough time to rest. The disallowed goal also contributed to our loss, it took off the rhythm from the boys.”
Nomads’ line up: Phillip Nyasulu, Semu Matemba, James Melton (Aaron Nyasulu), Allan Kamanga (James Sangala), John Ndau, Gerald Chimbaka (Pilirani Makupe), Moses Chavula, Harold Chimombo, Lawrence Majawa (Nafe Msasa), Joel Chipofya (Aggrey Kanyenda), Chikaiko Bridge (Albert Mpinganjira)
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