SHARON NYAYA
MBERENGWA-The long waited mouth watering blockbuster match between ZIFA Midlands D2 A log toppers, Great Dyke FC against Black Eagles FC, lived up to its billing as it attracted the who is who in the province’s football leadership.
The match at Education Ground gave the football leadership in the province the opportunity to see the talent in the vast district of Mberengwa and they pledged to help nurture it to higher levels.
ZIFA Central Region, Midlands chairman Previous Mathe and his vice chairman George Sibangani graced the match between two Mberengwa bulls that are garnering for championship and only separated by 2 points at the summit of the log.
“The match was good, entertaining and was I very impressed by the turn out, I think it’s one of the largest crowds at the D2 match I have watched this season.
This shows that the Mberengwa community loves football and I will urge the community leaders in Mberengwa to support these teams, both Black Eagles, Great Dyke and all other teams in the league. I also want to encourage other teams around to also join the league and participate in this ZIFA Midlands football league which I think has grown from strength to strength, last year we had one team (Mbesa FC) from Mberengwa now we have 2 from Mberengwa office and Buchwa being the third one with the fourth one in Zvishavane.
“I think it’s a commendable achievement, as the chairman of the ZIFA Midlands province at the moment I would encourage maybe other teams from as far as Mataga, Masase, Phoenix, Keyara in all other parts of Mberengwa to come in and join the league so that we can reach out to all the areas and maybe harness all the talent which is there in Mberengwa.
“I think Mberengwa has a lot of talent considering that the district is one of the largest in the Midlands province after Gokwe,” remarked Mathe in an interview with The Mid-week Watch during the match on Sunday 18 June 2023 at Mberengwa Education Ground.
Mathe added that he was happy with the reception they received from Mberengwa community, “It was actually great and appreciative, from the match I saw a lot of improvement that was exhibited by the two teams, they were competing in earnest to win and the level of competition was very high compared to others matches I have watched so far.
“I will rate this one as the best match so far this season that I have watched. I want to urge the two teams to continue with that high spirit going forward and I can predict that we are going to get the champions for ZIFA Midlands D2 pool A from these two teams, any of the two am sure they will be crowned champions at the end of the season.
“All in all, I think we must have a lot of guys that can compete in the Premier League and that is good sign for our football,”.
Sibangani also weighed and said,”the game was an important encounter as it was a clash of the two teams at the top of our Zifa Division 2 log. We wanted to make sure that all elements of fair play were observed. I was quite impressed by the level of competition that I witnessed and the turn out by supporters was quite pleasing. At the end I think a draw was a fair result.”
Black Eagles FC team manager Wilbert Zveshure couldn’t hide that Great Dyke FC gave them a taste of their medicine as they kept their players busy throughout the 90 minutes.
“It was a tense affair, we were playing a really good side, the side which had done their homework, I would want to commend the Great Dyke FC coach for doing a great job no wonder why there are second on the log, it really speaks volumes of their credentials as a good team.
“Nevertheless, I would also want to applaud our own guys for giving their best, we were very much in control of the game in the first half but unfortunately we failed to punish the home side possibly because our strikers were not picking each other,” he said.
