Bankers stun defending champs

-->

Bankers stun defending champs

Silver strikers FC comfortably defeated standard bank cup holders and capital city bitter rivals blue eagles 3-1 on Saturday in a thrilling match at silver stadium.

The victory edge the TNM  super league defending champions towards the comfort zone going into the second leg of the match which will be played at Nankhaka stadium next week, and it also proved to be a warm welcome for new coach Franco Ndawa.

Silver strikers had a sharper start than their opponents and dominated much of the early proceedings. Silver could have gone in front early in the game on  5^th minute when a Mustafa Salim’s long throw was misjudged by eagles defenders, the ball failed kindly for jester Mlima only for the attackers  attempt to lack vigor.

Blue eagles looked as lost men in the island as they could fail to get hold of possession, but that did not prevent them creating chances, Eagles’s first chance of the game came on 20^th minute when charles Ngosi latched onto a through ball and unleashed a thunderbolt which went inches wide.

Mlima fluffed yet another golden opportunity of the first half, this time on 28^th minute when a well crafted move by Rodrick Gonani and Dave Moya saw the latter crossing a decent ball in the box which beat the eagle’s defense and found Mlima on the edge of the box only for him to take his shot of target.

On the half hour mark, blue eagles could have broken the deadlock when innocent Ngwira’s teasing cross was met by Charles Ngosi who saw his header missing by a whisker.

On 45^th minute Jester Mlima paid off for his early misses when he set up the opening goal. Mlima’s well weighed free kick found frank Banda who put silver in the acsendacy.1-0.

In the second half silver, continued from where they left from in the first half as they doubled their lead in the 50^th minute when Harvey Mkacha headed jester Mlima’s cross.2-0

In a bid to add more firepower silver brought on Ndaziona Chatsalila for Ndaziona Chilemba while blue eagles took off innocent Ngwira and brought on Ben Hojan in attempts to reduce the deficit.

 Silver could have stretched their lead in the 68^th minute when Harvey Mkacha’s cross was headed wide by Dave Moya.

Silver was forced to make a change when frank Banda suffered an injury after being badly challenged with less than 10 minutes of the game, Green Harawa replaced him. Harawa would soon get involved into the match when the substitute’s through ball set up Rodrick Gonani who finished superbly.3-0

Blue eagles found their consolidating goal on the 44^th minute through a penalty when silver’s defender was judged to have handled inside the box. After the match silver coach Ndawa was happy with the win.

“I am happy with the win but there is still a long way to go as you know this is just  the first leg the tie is not over yet, the boys are okay and they have really welcomed me.” he said

Blue eagles coach Dickleck Msakakuona accepted the defeat but was confident that the tie was far from over.

“We have lost the game today, when we conceded that first goal my boys failed to pick up, but will go back to training to prepare for the second leg.” he said

Else where

Big bullets FC got their first leg of the standard bank cup quarter final on an impressive form when they narrowly beat Epac united through none other than Gabadinho Mhango’s goal.

Moyale barracks were held by civo service united 1-1 at Chitowe, Chrispin Fukizi and Patrick Gunde doing the job. The capital city based outfit going into the second leg with a valuable away goal.

Finally, Escom united and Mighty wanderer’s game ended into a 1 all draw, Joseph Kamwendo and Kelvin Haganda the scorers. The elections will go into the second leg with and upper  hand as they have scored an away goal.

On Moyale’s ban

On Moyale’s ban

Well, I don’t know where to start from but let me start by admitting that the issue I am to discus here it is one of the footballs awful actions, to have happened in Malawi.

I will start by going to the point; last week big bullets played Moyale barracks at the Mzuzu stadium in a much anticipated TNM super league match. The game promised to be a breathtaking encounter as it was like a rematch of the presidential cup finals, which big bullets won narrowly defeated Moyale barracks in Lilongwe by 1 goal to nil.

Football enthusiasts had high expectations to see how big bullets would perform without three of their influential stars namely Owen Chaima, Gabadinho Mhango and Chimango Kayira as they were on national duty.

The match which proved to be an exciting encounter, it would soon turn into a stage of horrifying events, Big bullets won the match 1 nil, and Moyale had what they claimed to be two clear goals disallowed by the referee. After the match Moyale barracks four players along with the teams’ supporters beat up referee Mabvuto Godoya and his assistants Victor Nkhata and Williams Chidyaonga over the decisions which went against them.

In response to the unbecoming behaviour the super league organization of Malawi slapped a Mk 300 000 fine to the club, and for his supporters behaviour they ordered the Mzuzu based outfit to play four of its games away from home. The four players Victor Phiri, Timothy Nyirenda and Lovemore Mitengo 000who were in the forefront of these barbaric actions have not went away with their conduct no, they have been banned from participating in league action for six months and ordered to pay fines ranging from K50,000 to K70,000.

Let me give kudos to SULOM for its decision on the issue (ayi zikamatrere bwezi zikoma).issues of violence are not tolerated in the game of football. As football followers, we still have fresh memories of the issue of sponsorship drought which so nearly crippled Malawi’s football due to the issues of violence.

Any acts of violence have to be condemned in the game of football, Malawians we should learn how to accept results and the fact that football it’s just a game, ‘in a game you lose some and you win some’.

Resorting to violence is not the best way to solve our differences and misunderstandings, as this will just hurt our clubs, and on a larger level Malawi’s football in general.

Lets me finish this post, by pleading with SOLOM to condemn the act of violence in our game.

Silver ready to offload Chitsulo

Silver ready to offload Chitsulo

Following the reports by the Malawi Sports Now (MSN) that silver strikers could be set to lose their center forward Tony Chitsulo, the player has already swapped cities, as he is now in Blantyre from Lilongwe training with his potential employer’s Mighty wanderer’s squad.

The 19 year old striker is believed to be disillusioned with his reduced game time and his loss of the first eleven place in the central bankers squad and sees mighty wanderers as perfect place to continue his development and try to force his way into the national team.

The talks between the two clubs are already in an advanced stage and according to a Silver Strikers insider said the bankers will not stand in the way of the 19 year old but that would not mean that he should go for a peanut.

Let us wait and see if this move will be completed in time before the restart of the second round. Do you think tony Chitsulo is the right player to strengthen mighty wanderers’ squad? Or they have to look elsewhere?

What do you think?

What went wrong?

What went wrong?

Last week saw our beloved flames take on the black stars of Ghana, in a hope to return to the Africa cup of nations.

Most of us had high hopes for that match (at least a draw would have been enough), you know   playing us at home they (the black stars) can’t stand against us or can they?

However all our hopes were dashed by the Africans second high ranked team with the much deserved two nil victory, so I will try to look back into that game and see what went wrong.

In first place, I would not be doing any justice by staring my analysis on how we played, before looking at our squad which traveled to Accra. Let me be fair here that, as a young and upcoming football pundit, I knew that the squad which traveled to Ghana was a very lighter squad (it had no depth).

Coach Kinnah Phiri, has been receiving criticism over his tendency of picking in active players when assembling his squad, many pundits have criticized the coach over this issue and it seems the coach still is not showing any signs of improvement. Last week we paid the price of our coach’s lack of flexibility on changing his stance.

Let’s look in the squad which traveled with the coach, we had players like Dave Banda, who has not even kicked a ball this season at club level and has returned home from south Africa to kick start his career, but coach Kinnah Phiri still managed to give him a place in the starting eleven and he was paired with frank Banda in the middle of the park (midfield).

Frank himself has struggled for form since his move from civo to silver strikes and has been sidelined to the bench at his club.

The other players are peter Wadabwa, jimmy Zakazaka and Atusaye Nyondo. Nyondo has not been a regular feature in the super sport United’s squad. While the other two  Peter Wadabwa and jimmy Zakazaka, it has been much of the same story, they are struggling to find game time in South Africa, but yet Kinnah afforded to grant them a place in the plane to Accra. To make matters worse, four of the discussed players started in the game against Ghana.

The other miss for our coach, was his lack of timing to make substitutions. The coach decided to start robin ngalande and Gabadinho Mhango on the bench for the reasons which he is well aware of and I am not going to argue much on that, but I will base my argument on his lack of timing to bring on the two exciting youngsters early on in the game.

The dynamic duo, changed the game when they were introduced and they were more effective in the game than the two players which they replaced (frank Banda and peter Wadabwa).the two players which the duo replaced had a very quite game, But the coach’s substitution came too little too late for the deficit to be reduced.

Finally, the final point is what I personally believe that it is a major contributor to our disappointing run. The frames are experiencing a bad spell; our team has now turned to be a predictable side, that if they have not lost a game then probably that match has been drawn. Such has been the poor form of our beloved team.

So this has given me this idea that maybe coach Kinnah Phiri has run out of ideas and is failing to replicate his 2010 magic, when he guided us to our first afcon qualifier? Which local coach do you think would save the flames?

What do others think?

Eight teams set to move forward

Eight teams set to move forward

Eight TNM super league teams will this weekend battle it out to book a place in the semifinals finals of the standard bank cup trophy.

The weekend sees TNM super league champions Silver strikers facing a daunting challenge of getting past the standard bank cup holders blue eagles. This will be the first match for silver strikers new Coach Franco Ndawa, after taking the helm at the area 47 based outfit, but that will not give much pressure on the bankers who will play this match at their own backyard.

Coming from winning the presidential cup, Big bullets will look to repeat their presidential cup magic as they face Albus Makawa’s Epac United who are desperate to win a silverware this season, and they well see the standard bank cup as an opportunity too good to miss. However bullets will relay on their cup specialist Gabadinho Mhango who has return from international duty.

The other quarter final sees struggling former TNM super league champions Escom united, facing former presidential cup champions mighty wanderers. Apart from this being a battle of booking a place in the last four and eventually finding a way to the finals, this also proves to be a battle for sponsorship. Remember that MTL is assessing three teams, namely Bullets, Mighty wanderers and Escom, so these teams will look to boost their chances of securing a sponsorship by having some medals on their locker this season.

Finally, after narrowly losing the presidential cup finals to big bullets, Moyale barracks will look to consolidate their fans with a standard bank cup, but that will not be easy as they face a hungry civo service united, who are experiencing a cup drought. Sir Alex Masanjala’s side will look to clear the spider webs in their trophy cabin by winning this season’s standard bank trophy.

All in all, this weekend brings us very exciting matches which one can’t afford to miss.