Waiting for the Rain

they have the perfect specimen of their great coach when it comes to the game on the local scene.

By May last year, Mapeza had knitted one of domestic football’s finest success stories, which had gone largely unnoticed, with his FC Platinum having gone exactly a year without losing a match in the Castle Lager Premiership — in a remarkable record-breaking feat in the country’s top-flight league.

And, as fate might have it, Dynamos had been the last team to beat them.

After that, FC Platinum began a 26-match unbeaten run in the Castle Lager Premiership with a 3-2 win over Triangle at Mandava and defeat became something that was allergic to their ambitions.

They had won 16 of their matches and drawing 10, scoring 44 goals and conceding 14 to accumulate 58 points out of a possible 78 for an impressive 74.35 percent success rate.

But all that counted for nothing without a league title, because this is the prize that matters above any other, and Mapeza — who won it with Monomotapa in 2008 — now faces one hurdle at Ascot tomorrow knowing that, should they clear it and, interestingly, even if they fail to clear it, they could be champions.

Not since 1966 has this country seen anything as close to this when the late Father Anthony Davis and his St Paul’s Musami team took the league title to Murewa.

The letter M has since featured prominently among those who have been kings — Marimo before he became Chidzambwa, Masomere before he turned into farming in the Midlands, Mhlauri before he left for the United States, Methembe before he decided to spend his time developing the young players, Mandigora before they pushed him out of DeMbare for absolutely no reason at all.

Mapeza, before he suddenly quit Monoz, Moses (Chunga) before he decided to spend more time with the juniors, Manabhundu, also known as Callisto Pasuwa, before they terminated his contract at the Glamour Boys for no reason at all, all come to the fore.

Now, another coach with a name where the letter M features prominently, Mapeza or Mutasa, will be crowned king tomorrow.

For the people of Chitungwiza it will mean six of the last seven league championships have been won by their sons — quite an amazing achievement indeed.