Silver Strikers continued the narrative of a bogey team against Mighty Wanderers when they pipped them to the FDH Bank Cup final in the latest episode that delivered penalties that turned into a comedy of errors.
After the FDH Bank Cup had rolled the dice and produced two semifinal derbies in Blantyre and Lilongwe, a coin was tossed again that delivered a Blantyre versus Lilongwe as Mighty Wanderers faced Silver in their quest to win their maiden FDH Bank Cup in its fifth edition since 2021 which, ironically, is sponsored by the Wanderers’ sponsor, Dr Thom Mpinganjira.
Buoyed by beating their arch-rivals FCB Nyasa Big Bullets twice in a space of a week, Wanderers failed at the last hurdle as Silver equalised through a penalty that was conceded under suspicious circumstances when Felix Zulu raised his hand in the Diego Maradona style of ‘hand of God’ as he cleared a McDonald Lameck’s throw in using his hand.
In succession, five Wanderers players contrived to either miss or get their penalty kicks saved as Dalitso Khungwa, Masiya Manda, Peter Cholopi and Timothy Silwimba failed to convert their spot kicks.
“Pressure is for tyres”, a famous quote by Allan Shearer, Newcastle United and England legend, highlights the enormous pressure penalty takers contend with during a shootout.
However, most of the missed penalties were due to sheer incompetence as the height of the ball, proximity of the ball to the keeper and the poor technique of the penalties delivered the balls on a platter for both Khungwa, who made four saves, and George Chikooka, who had three saves to shine.
Professional players who ply their trade in the Super League took penalties as if they were Sunday leaguers.
Obviously, this time the pressure in the tyres exploded especially for Wanderers.
But how did Wanderers fail to beat Silver yet again?
Mgangira’s wing-back hybrid positions
Peter Mgangira, Head Coach for Silver Strikers, was pragmatic from the outset when he deployed five natural defenders in the name of McDonald Lameck, Innocent Shemma, Maxwell Paipi, Nickson Mwase and Dan Sandilukira in what looked like a 5-4-1 tactical formation from a glance.
But during Silvers attacking sequences, this devolved into a 3-6-1 as Lameck and Sandukira were playing as wing-backs to provide width and support attacks while sending pinpointing crosses to Andrew Joseph who was playing as the lone striker.
This had a small success rate in terms of attacks as only Lameck whipped in a couple of crosses for Joseph but was only dangerous with his throw-ins that looked like launched from a catapult.
Both Lameck and Sandukira are not well adept with dribbling to take out opponents in one-versus-one situations.
However, when Silver lost possession of the ball, the wing backs dropped back as traditional wingers in a 5-4-1 formation, which meant Silver had an extra central defender to neutralise any Nomads attacks led by Blessings Mwalilino and Promise Kamwendo.
Silver’s extra man at the midfield
It has been well-documented in previous entries of this page how dominant, stable, and hustle-bustle Wanderers midfield is at the moment.
Wanderers play a diamond shape at the midfield with Felix Zulu as the pivot protecting the defence and disrupting attacks, Daniel Kudonto and Isaac Kaliati as central midfielders who are the legs who do all the running, while Blessings Singini as a creative attacking midfielder creates overloads and control that overwhelmed FCB Nyasa Big Bullets in the three occasions they met this season.
In addition, when Adam Wallace, a winger, plays narrow by getting inside, Wanderers look like a 3-5-2 formation.
Mgangira was well aware of this situation and, in order to wrestle control, he deployed a 3-6-1 formation with Levison Maganizo, Ernest Petro, Zebron Kalima and Uchizi Vunga while the wing-backs, namely Lameck and Sandukira, could also play narrow to create overloads as well at the midfield when time allowed.
This meant Silver, too, had an extra man at the midfield.
Mgangira’s tactical substitutions
While trailing by a goal which was scored by Blessings Singini in the 24th minute in a botched zonal marking approach as Singini’s run was not picked and tracked in the box, Mgangira ditched the wing-backs approach and pulled out Sandukira and simultaneously pushed back Lameck to play as a traditional full-back with four defenders.
He also removed Petro to give more leeway to Levison Maganizo to orchestrate play.
However, the introduction of Chinsisi Maonga and Charles Chipala proved pivotal and was a turning point in the game.
Chipala partnered with Joseph upfront, and this pinned Timothy Silwimba at the back as he could not move freely as he was doing before for fear of Chipala’s pace breaking in behind.
Maonga, too, was a handful to Sanudi, and this forced Kaliati to be tracking back more to support Sanudi which somewhat reduced Wanderers potency in attacks.
Conversely, Bob Mpinganjira goofed when he introduced Sama Tanjong, the Cameroonian striker who could only chase his own shadow and was a passenger.
Mwalilino, who had been replaced, was better as he could also drop at the midfield to add numbers and defended from the front with his energy and intensity which gave pressure on the ball when Wanderes had lost the ball.
No wonder Sama was substituted again.
At this juncture, Wanderers midfield had opened up, and Silver began to grow in confidence while Wanderers backtracked as Silver piled pressure that led to the suspicious penalty conceded by Zulu, the vice-captain.
Although Wanderers’ backs were against the wall at this moment, the handball by Zulu was needless as there were six Wanderers players in the penalty area against three Silver players.
The handball borders on immaturity and of course stupidity for a senior Wanderers player to concede when his team were leading with only 14 minutes left on the clock for a coveted trophy like the FDH Bank Cup for Wanderers.
As Wanderers collect their pieces in a pile of the debris of a painful loss of the FDH Bank Cup and lick their wounds for the false start and hopes they ignited in their fans after flash in the pan performances against FCB Nyasa Big Bullets, Silver Strikers who they meet again after the international break will continue to peddle the bogeyman narrative over them.
