In what could be the most thrilling match of the 2024 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL), CAPS United staged a remarkable comeback to defeat Highlanders in “the Battle of Zimbabwe” at Rufaro Stadium on Sunday.
Lot Chiwunga emerged as the hero for CAPS United, scoring the Green Machine’s third goal in added time, securing a 3-2 victory over Bosso.
The decisive goal came just moments after Junior Bunjira had equalized with five minutes left in regulation time.
CAPS United had trailed for much of the match due to a brace from Lynoth Chikuhwa within the first 32 minutes.
Facing potential defeat, CAPS United found hope when the league’s top scorer, William Manondo, converted a first-half penalty.
In his post-match remarks, coach Chitembwe highlighted the impact of his second-half substitutions, Ralph Kawondera and Chiwunga, on the match’s outcome. He said:
We are happy with the result. We were also desperate for it. I think it’s good for the team because it brings so much to the team.
We knew they were leading and we were chasing the game. It’s always difficult when you’re chasing the game against a team like Highlanders.
Realising they were leading and they were sitting at the back, we needed to change the whole dimension of the game, hence we decided to bring in Ralph who I think is a bit mobile in the midfield, and he gave us that mobility.
We did just change positions; we took out Rodwell (Chinyengetere) and slightly changed (Kingsley) Mureremba’s position so that he gave us the mobility that we needed when building up play.
Transitioning from midfield into attack was a bit slower when Roddy was in there and then Mureremba gave us exactly what we needed.
Highlanders coach Kelvin Kaindu said that with a 2-0 lead, they should have secured the match, but errors allowed CAPS United to stage a comeback and ultimately win. Said Kaindu:
I think this is one of the most painful losses that we have encountered. We started well and we managed to score two goals and I thought we were in the driving seat. But the game changed; we lost focus in the way that we defended.
I think before the end of the first half when CAPS United were given that penalty we lost a bit of concentration because everybody thought that the ball had hit the player in the face.
But football being what it is, we should be able to defend our lead but CAPS United came out stronger in the second half.
We had anticipated that they would use their wide areas and this is exactly what they did. The unfortunate part is that all the three goals CAPS United scored, we could have defended them but we made our own mistakes.
Teams:
CAPS United: Ashley Reyners, Hastings Chapusha, Eric Manokore, Bruce Kangwa, Godknows Murwira, Kingsley Mureremba, Phineas Bamusi, Junior Bunjira, Jayden Bakari (J. Mbollo, 46th min, I. Zambezi 96th min), Rodwell Chinyengetere (R. Kawondera, 65th min), William Manondo (L. Chiwunga, 71st min)
Highlanders: Reward Muza, Marvellous Chigumira (K. Mvelo, 89th min), Andrew Mbeba, Peter Muduhwa, Godfrey Makaruse, Mckinnon Mushore, Brighton Ncube (N. Rauzhi, 67th min), Mason Mushore, Melikhaya Ncube, Lynoth Chikuhwa, Nqobile Ndlovu (G. Nyathi, 90th min).
More: Pindula News