Hard times roll:
IT’S a measure of Dynamos’ spectacular fall from grace in the past decade that, on the 10th anniversary of the day they made history as the first club to beat Tunisian giants Etoile du Sahel in their backyard in the CAF Champions League, the Glamour Boys are sitting just one point above the relegation zone in the domestic Premiership.
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the day when DeMbare shocked the continent by becoming the first club to defeat Etoile du Sahel in a CAF Champions League match in Sousse, when Benjamin Marere’s solitary goal provided the Glamour Boys with one of their greatest results on the road in this tournament.
Having edged Etoile du Sahel 1-0 in Harare in the first leg of their second round battle through a goal by Desmond Maringwa, the Glamour Boys were largely expected to implode in the reverse fixture in Tunisia.
But coach David Mandigora and his men defied the odds with a gritty show that reaped them a 1-0 victory for a 2-0 aggregate triumph.
That the Tunisians were then the defending African champions, after having won the tournament the previous year with a comprehensive 3-1 aggregate victory over record winners Al Ahly of Egypt in the final, put into context the special nature of that Glamour Boys success story.
Given DeMbare only arrived in Tunisia just hours before the match after their trip had been hanging in the balance because of financial challenges charmed a lot of neutrals around the world and put the magnificence of their victory into perspective.
Etoile du Sahel were one of the four former African champions which those Glamour Boys met in that Champions League adventure where they defeated three of those giants, including ASEC Mimosas who — like the Tunisians, were beaten home-and-away, and five-time African champions Zamalek of Egypt — on their way to the semi-finals.
Record eight-time African champions Al Ahly needed a 93rd minute goal in Cairo to find a way to beat those plucky Glamour Boys 2-1 in a group stage showdown, while DeMbare’s neversay-die spirit was paraded by their sen- sational victories over ASEC Mimosas in Abidjan and Zamalek at Rufaro.
A 96th minute goal by Philip Marufu in Abidjan, when the referee had given the generous half-a-dozen goals trying to buy time for the hosts to score the winner only for it to backfire in spectacular fashion, fired DeMbare to a 2-1 victory while a 90th minute fierce freekick from David Shoko downed Zamalek 1-0 at Rufaro.
That last- gasp home victory powered DeMbare into the semi-finals, after they finished second in the group to Al Ahly, but they could not clear the hurdle erected by Cameroonian side Coton Sport Garoua, who humbled the Glamour Boys 5-0 on aggregate.
Speed merchant Edward Sadomba was one of the stars of that Dynamos campaign, including scoring both goals in his team’s 2-1 group match victory over ASEC Mimosas at Rufaro on July 20, 2008, after choosing to serve his club in this big match even as his sister — who had died a few days earlier — lay in state at their family home in Mbare.
Given all the challenges which those Glamour Boys had to endure on the domestic front, including a financial squeeze which left some of their away trips hanging in the balance until the last minute, their march into the semi-finals of that Champions League cheered many around the world.
Their success forced DeMbare into the pages of newspapers around the world, including British daily, The Guardian, which even went on to suggest that should those Glamour Boys win the Champions League that year, it would be the greatest success story in world football that year, eclipsing even Spain’s Euro 2008 triumph in Switzerland and Austria.
“In Zimbabwe, Dynamos FC are nicknamed the Glamour Boys because they’re the country’s most popular club,’’ The Guardian journalist Paul Doyle said in a piece dedicated to the Harare giants in the newspaper.
‘’But in the wider world of African, let alone global, football, that sobriquet could easily be seen as sarcastic.
“For financially Dynamos are in dire straits even though they can sell out their 45 000-capacity stadium, where at the start of this season the cheapest tickets cost one hundred million
dollars.
“Now, here’s the story of the greatest football achievement of the season.
“It’s a story without an end as yet, but if what’s happened so far is anything to go by, it will culminate with Dynamos being crowned the most unlikely continental champions ever.
“Actually, first here’s a little more context. African club football has always been dominated by North and West Africa.
“Congolese clubs were an ephemeral force in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, but only Orlando Pirates in 1995 have intruded from the south.
“Dynamos, on their one previous appearance in the African Champions League, managed to reach the final in 1998 before losing to Ivorian giants ASEC Mimosa in what you might describe as controversial circumstances - the various ruses devised to upset the visitors before the second leg in Abidjan reached a nadir during the pre-match warm-up, when a brawl broke out and Dynamos’ captain Memory Mucherahowa was head- butted into unconsciousness.
“Dynamos may have ended 10 barren years by claiming the league and cup double last season, but only two of their players are in the Zimbabwe squad that has already been eliminated from the 2010 African Cup of Nations.
“Yet last Saturday, Dynamos beat Zamalek to reach the semi-finals of the African Champions League. Zamalek, the Egyptians, who’ve won the tournament five times, boast a slew of internationals and are flush enough to employ an expensive German coach and pay Amr Zaky’s replacement, Junior Agogo, some £300 000 per year.
“Those resources should put them in another world to the Glamour Boys.
“Becoming No1 would mean scooping the Champions League’s $1 million prize fund - that’s US dollars.’’
And the former Dynamos secretary-general Tawanda Murerekwa then intervened as he told the newspaper what the club would buy should they win the tournament.
“Winning the tournament would go a long way to securing the club’s future,” Murerekwa told The Guardian, adding, “We would be able to do things like get training equipment and a team bus.”
And, that provided a spark for the British newspaper.
“The symbolism of a team bus would be powerful. It was an inability to pay an outstanding debt to a bus hire company in 2004 that forced the Zimbabwe FA into an embarrassing sale, when it had to auction off everything from chairs, filing cabinets and a refrigerator to staplers and reams of paper. And still only raised enough to cover onethird of the debt,’’ The Guardian noted.
Ten years later, little has changed, DeMbare now have a team bus, donated by Nyaradzo Funeral Services, but they haven’t been able to buy even a bicycle, they are still homeless and have disappeared from the Champions League radar for four years now.
From having eight-time African champions Al Ahly, five-time champions Zamalek and TP Mazembe and one-time champions ASEC Mimosas for company in the 2008 Champions League group stages, which they secured 10 years to this month, the Glamour Boys now sit just a point above the relegation zone in the domestic Premiership.