Peter Mponda has binge-able shows at FCB Nyasa Big Bullets, he never wore blue attire during his time of active football in Malawi, but he is wearing it on the weekend against his former bosses and of course against his master.
Mponda is not a protege to Pasuwa as he was already a qualified coach when he joined Bullets’ technical panel as Assistant Coach in June 2019. He was the head coach for Wizards FC but the Zimbabwean gaffer unarguably vouchsafe managerial experience to the former Flames skipper.
Mponda came to Silver, saw, and decided to make changes as he aims to challenge Pasuwa’s dominance in local football. The former Dynamos Coach has won five league titles in five years, two Airtel Top 8 Cups, two FDH Bank Cups, Castel Challenge Cup, and he has been the landlord for the Charity Shield Cup.
“We wanted a serial winner and a coach who understands our football,” Silver Strikers clarified their choice to appoint former Bullets Captain and Assistant Coach, Peter Mponda to replace the out-spoken Dutchman, Pieter De Jongh.
There has been resistance from Supporters’ preferences as they deemed Mponda as Bullets’ die-hard and could betray Silver Strikers. Mponda will be eager to shock his former team and prove Patrick Chimimba ‘s valor by repudiating supporters’ preference.
The Central Bankers are yet to taste the Cloyne of the Charity Shield since the Football Association of Malawi it introduced in 2016 not only as a curtain raiser to the season but also FAM’s flagship Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program which aims at mobilizing the football fraternity and the public to raise funds and awareness towards a charitable cause of national significance.
Bullets have been winning it since 2016, beating Kamuzu Barracks, Silver Strikers twice, and Mighty Mukuru Wanderers along the process.
The Area 47 outfit, has featured in this Corporate Social Responsibility game twice, both losing to FCB Nyasa Big Bullets. (1-0 in 2022 and 3-0 in 2018).
Silver Strikers Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Chimimba said enough is enough as FCB Nyasa Big Bullets will not win all trophies as they did last season and the Bankers’ challenge on Bullets will start on Saturday.
“We are ready for the season, as you have noted we have brought in some new players to beef up the squad. Bullets won all the trophies last season but not this season we are starting on Saturday,” Chimimba tells the Press when FAM dressed the teams with Jerseys.
Peter Mponda and Kalisto Pasuwa go way back and the Silver manager challenged he would rather be going up against Pasuwa other than someone else as he attempt to end Silver’s 10-year wait for the league Championship.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s gargantuan clash at the Bingu National Stadium Stadium, Pasuwa was more sanguine — confident that his friendship with Mjojo will endure despite a high-stakes showdown that comes with the territory of their professions.
“Of course, we are well prepared [to face Silver Strikers] and this is the game where we are saying anyone fit, can play the game, and who is not, we can make him fit to play the game.
“We have a lot of guys who are new to the team like the boys who were at Bangwe, we took them to the team and we need everyone to be around but it hasn’t been the issue as the National Team took 11 of our players, in a month, I only trained with for a week, which can also affect us.
“But at the end of the day we should be prepared and everyone who trained needs to give up his Maximum efforts,” he said.
Peter Mponda said he is not looking at the Charity Shield but rather throwing his eyes to the prestigious trophies this season.
“We were not preparing for the Charity Shield Cup, but we were preparing for the league and other cups, we believe that with what we have done throughout four weeks, we are good to go.
“We are not really looking at a win, we want to win the league, we want to win the cup games, not Charity Shield. This is one of the games which will help us fine-tune our season,” he said.
Can Mponda become Pasuwa’s greatest nemesis?
The Bankers hired Zambia’s Dan Kabwe to guide them to the league championship but he couldn’t, and he was fired later after helping them win the FDH Bank Cup, he beat Bullets on penalties along the way after a 2-all stalemate.
Karonga United had Zimbabwean gaffer, Lazarus Magaya but he couldn’t stamp his authority at the Club, Pieter De Jongh failed to challenge Pasuwa, and so too with Mark Harrison for Mighty Mukuru Wanderers who resigned from his post soon after losing to Bullets in the Castel Challenge Cup.
It is a team from another time, a glimpse of Silver’s post-Pieter De Jongh identity crisis and Mponda’s decidedly imperfect inheritance. China Chirwa and George Chaomba were some of the players that the former Black Leopards defender axed from the squad that he found at the Club, although he is said to be not a fan of some of the players that were signed before his arrival.
The Bankers are yet to lose under the tutelage of Mponda after playing Friendly matches during the Pre-season preparations, beating Mafco FC, Bangwe All Stars, and Ekhaya FC, among others. They assume a greater pertinence now, and not merely as signs of the transformation of a side in three months.
Pasuwa has just suffered 18 defeats with Bullets in 169 games, winning 106 of them, making him the only coach with the highest winning percentage in the 20th Century.
Since what could be described as a deceptive good start, the apprentice has begun to pose more of a threat to the master.
The two coaches have shown mutual respect to each other during the press conference at Bingu National Stadium on Friday with Pasuwa saying that he is happy to see Mponda anchoring Silver Strikers’ technical panel.
“He was one of my assistant coaches, but I must not look much at that. I’m happy for him [Mponda], he is one of the coaches in Malawi and I appreciate that. This is our first game of the season and we should not relax,” he said.
Mponda described Kalisto Pasuwa as one of the best coaches that he has faced during his playing and coaching career.
“We are playing against a very good team and they have a very good coach. As a player, I have gone through a lot of coaches and as a coach, I have also worked under very good coaches, but for me, Kalisto stands out and RVG, so he is one of the best coaches that I have seen in my career,” said Mponda.
Pasuwa, and Mponda share commonalities but who will gamble better?
Both Kalisto Pasuwa and Peter prize possession and control but they are looking for the win on Saturday. Pasuwa would like to continue his good record in the Charity Shield while Mponda would like to horrify Chimimba.
Pasuwa has inspired disciples such as Silver Strikers’ Coach, Mponda, his adversary in Saturday’s titanic clash between two teams that are deemed to be some of the title contenders. It will be billed as the meeting of two football aesthetes, who want the ball kept on the carpet at all costs.
However, this belies the extent to which both Bullets and Silver are willing to mix it with long balls forward when the time is right. Both have goalkeepers who are new to the team and excel at precise, long-range distribution. The quadruple winners roped in Mighty Tigers’ Goalkeeper, Innocent Nyasulu who won the goal-keeper of the season accolade while Silver signed George Chikooka from Chitipa United.
Both coaches will be willing to give a chance to the new players. Babatunde Adepoju who is yet to return to his full fitness could feature in the game as he can provide the team with aerial presence and the chance to play directly from A to B.
Stain Davie who usually stuns Bullets could be the perfect option to start as the lone striker but Mponda could obviously opt to start with Gift Chunga who bagged four goals in five games during the pre-season.
“We have new players and we want to make them feel how it means to play for Bullets, and feel the atmosphere,” said Pasuwa.
Bullets and Silver are the two best-attacking teams in the league, free attacking from front to back. Silver has Chimwemwe Idana who acts as an engine of the team, Bullets have multiple of them. Both Lloyd Banega and Chikondi Kamanga are ball-winners and they are expected to patrol congested central areas, it could prove difficult for either team to play through the other, yes it is predicted to be so.
