The ManicaPost
ESTEEMED followers of the game of football, thank you for finding time for interaction. The little river that has been supplying a steady stream of Premiership football to Mutare has just run dry.And with the football gods frowning upon the Eastern border city, they will next season not shower us with some drizzle to regenerate top-flight action in this land famous for its diamonds and hospitality.
With the source drying up and a dark cloud, which promises no rain, hovering above the city that then effectively spells a drought of the world’s most followed and hugely loved game for Mutare — at least for next season.
Or is this land, also famed for its rich agricultural produce, just arid and infertile for Premiership football?
Following the demotion of Mutare City Rovers from the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League Premiership and Buffaloes’ faltering at the last hurdle for promotion into the elite league from the Eastern Region Division One, the dry season is just upon us now.
Gusha Bhora for long had the relegation tag dangling around their necks, heavily weighing them down in their debut Premiership season and could not stay up, while Ndombolo’s experience came to naught in the second tier as they were agonisingly pipped by Waterfalls-based Yadah Stars.
With the Mutare Municipal outfit going down, the army outfit returning to be among the big boys’ league could have been a moment to savour as it would ensure that Premiership action continues in Mutare.
How the dark clouds, which only put a damper on the city’s top-flight aspirations, began to gather and the complicity on the part of our representatives, especially City Rovers, is a story for another day. Today’s headline derives from the story of this moment — the dry season, which we must have not seen coming.
Last Saturday was a sad day, indeed, as tragedy struck with a double-edged sword. While the city’s Premiership dream was dying with Rovers, the Buffaloes egg could not hatch into life.
While Mutare City had no-one else, but their laggard selves to blame, a haggard Buffaloes would slouch their shoulders and probably curse fate.
For the soldiers will point to an “uneven playing field” whereby fellow contenders, Yadah Stars benefited from boardroom decisions that awarded them full points for abandoned matches.
For the army side will rue the part fellow uniformed forces outfit Tenax played in “ruining” their season.
For neutrals and other followers of the game in the city felt the correctional services side should have acted “in the interest of geography and solidarity”.
Such was the dire situation at Sakubva last Saturday that they immediately clotted some bad blood between the two teams that the skirmish that followed at the end of the match of the match was not surprising.
Pushing the pen to put this piece together naturally came with a sense of heavy-heartedness that has left Yours Truly gasping and frantically groping for a gulp to cool off the parched feeling currently enveloping the city.
It all comes with the beginning of the dry season!
Thanks for the memories,
Stevie G
Steven Gerrard will linger longer in the memories of Liverpool fanatics like Yours Truly, even after having called time on his playing days last week. For here is a man who ignited Anfield with stellar performances that defined a glittering career of just over a decade-and-a-half of uninterrupted and loyal service to his boyhood Merseyside club.
Single-handedly carrying the Kop side on his shoulders on countless occasions, Gamechanger salutes the legendary Number 8 — whom Yours Truly adoringly idolised as Captain Charisma, for his influence and impact and how it rubbed off onto fellow players and Kopitesalike — and celebrates him as probably the finest footballer ever to pull on the famous red shirt.
Thank you for the service, loyalty, memories and everything else, Steven Gerrard — especially that spectacular night in Istanbul, the 2006 FA Cup final against West Ham United at Wembley famously dubbed “the Steven Gerrard final” and that extraordinary win against Olympiacos to keep alive our dream of bringing the big-eared trophy back to Anfield for a record fifth time in the history of English football.
Whatever journey SG8 will start out on next, he just has to dream on because YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE; not ever!
It’s Game On, Play On!
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