Zim strikers underperforming | Football

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Zim strikers underperforming

Written by Farirayi Kahwemba

Wednesday, 18 November 2009 13:27

RUSTENBURG – As the 2009/ 10 season of the ABSA Premiership in South Africa enters its second stage this weekend, one glaring feature is the absence of Zimbabwean players on the top 10 goal scorers’ table.
The only thing worth talking about – from a Zimbabwean perspective – are the three goals of Kaizer Chiefs’, Knowledge Musona, which have thrust the 19-year-old to 16th position on the goal scorers’ list. This is despite the fact that he has been used as a substitute on all his 11 league appearances. The rest of the local strikers have failed to justify why they should be fielded on a regular basis by their coaches. That none of them have been able to score regularly is a sad statistic for a country whose forwards used to dominate the same league just a few years ago.
Gilbert Mushangazhike – one of the most experienced strikers playing in the league – has fared so badly for Orlando Pirates that his club has decided that he will spend the rest of the season on loan to newly promoted Mpumalanga Black Aces. Mushangazhike was unable to fill the void left by the departure of fellow Zimbabwean Ralph Matema, who also found the going tough at Pirates last season. After having scored 10 goals in 11 matches for Highlanders in 2007, Matema was quickly snapped up by the Bucs but managed only a single goal in several matches – a development that resulted in his quick disposal to lower division outfit Witbank Spurs.
Evans Chikwaikwai is also finding the gong tough at Witbank Wits. Zimbabwe’s 2008 Soccer Star of the Year – who scored 23 goals for Njube Sundowns last season – is not on the goalscorer’s list and his debut season in the South African Premier League is turning out to be a bad one. While players such as Sundowns skipper, Esrom Nyandoro, and Kaizer Chiefs midfielder, Tinashe Nengomasha, have, over the years, become vital cogs in their respective clubs, there is no Zimbabwean who has managed to replicate the goal scoring abilities of Benjani Mwaruwari, Alois Bunjira or Wilfred Mugeyi. The three were goal scoring machines during their stints in the South African Premiership to such an extent that they still enjoy legendary status in South African football circles.
While at Jomo Cosmos, Mwaruwari was voted player of the season and players’ player of the season in 2001 for his goal poaching abilities. In 44 appearances for Cosmos, Benjani netted 30 goals between 1999 and 2001 and could have scored more had he not been sidelined by injuries.
Mugeyi was even more lethal when he was in his prime, emerging as the top goal scorer of the league in the 1996/ 97 season after scoring 23 goals for Umtata Bushbucks. Mugeyi – or “Silver Fox” – also scooped both the player of the year and the players’ player of the year awards in addition to the Leslie Manyatela award, which is given to the top goal scorer for each season.
Bunjira’s scoring abilities at Wits were also a major talking point during the 1990s.

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