Gondwe reveals clue to beat Bullets
By Antony Isaiah Jr…….
Malawi Armed Force College (Mafco) Football Club Head Coach, Stereo Gondwe has revealed the clue to beat Nyasa Big Bullets who have been a hard nut to unscrew this season.
Before the game against Mafco at Dedza Stadium, Kalisto Pasuwa’s boys had gone 25 games without a defeat, winning 18 games and dropping points in 7 games.
However, that impressive run came to an end on Sunday in the hands of Salima based Soldiers, Mafco Football Club.
Gondwe who is a head coach for Mafco said the homework is to do practices on how to stop Chimwemwe Idana saying he is the channel for Bullets’ goals.
ππππ ππππππππ? Fresh from beating Sable Farming 2-0, Mafco again repeated their supremacy to another Blantyre based side Nyasa Big Bullets on Sunday afternoon at Dedza Stadium by beating them 1-0.
Zikani Sichinga netted the only goal after receiving a pass from Mphatso Philimon that three Bullets defenders failed to deal with and the striker nodded it home.
Nyasa Big Bullets through their Coach, Kalisto Pasuwa tried all the means to get away with something from the game but Mafco were resilient.
The game was defined in the midfield where Chimwemwe Idana was playing.
Stereo Gondwe deployed David Daud as the defensive midfielder, a player who at one point played alongside Chimwemwe Idana during their tenure under Enos Chatama’s mentorship at Nyasa Big Bullets Reserve.
Daud had a battle with Idana in the midfield, cutting his moves hence leaving Bullets’ attackers in hunger for the ball as there was no distributions of balls from the midfield.
The 2021 Player of the season has been the pillar for the people’s team and his struggle also leads to the struggle of the team.
Kalisto Pasuwa noted the struggle of the maestro and he decided to pull him out with 28 minutes to go as he was replaced by Alick Lungu.
The only goal by Sichinga was enough for Mafco to hand Bullets their first defeat after 36 games. Bullets have only won one game in their last 5 outings, drawing three times against Civil Service United, Silver Strikers and Blue Eagles. They only beat Sable Farming.
Mafco last beat Bullets in a league game back in 2013 before another remarkable 1-0 win in 2016 when they booted them out from the Carlsberg Malawi Cup.
ππππ πππ ππππ? Stereo Gondwe in the post-match interviews admitted that their work was to deal with Chimwemwe Idana.
“It was planned to beat them [Nyasa Big Bullets]. They beat us 1-0 in Blantyre [in the first round] and out strategy was to sacore first and defend well. What we do was to top Chimwemwe Idana because we knew that he is their hero in the midfield. We told Daudi to man-mark him so that he should not make any movement. It has happened as how we prepared and we are happy with the win,” said Gondwe.
Kaslito Pasuwa accepted that his midfielder was not at his level best that is why he pulled him out of the game.
“From transition most of the time Idana was very slow and the one ball that we conceded was on a bad back pass from him, negative part of it, then straight away they scored us. But thatβs part of the game and the substitutes [that] came in tried their best, but it wasnβt meant to be our day, we move on to the next one.β
Idana is like the heart of the team and his absence was also noted in a game that Nyasa Big Bullets played a 1-all stalemate against Kamuzu Barracks in their game of the first round.
In the post-match interviews after the game, Pasuwa admitted the gaps in the midfield and had to urge his team that they should not rely on one player.
Mafco have moved up to 7th place supplanting Civo Service United who occupied the only for 24 hours after beating Ekwendeni Hammers on Saturday. Mafco have 46 points from 28 games and they have remained with Karonga United and Blue Eagles.
