Zimbabwe: Antonio Opens Dembare Account
THE Dynamos youth revolution is beginning to show some promising signs after teenage sensation Bill Antonio scored his first league goal for the Glamour Boys in the hard-fought 2-0 victory over Bulawayo Chiefs in the Castle Lager Premiership football match at Barbourfields on Saturday.
Antonio, who was an Upper-Six student at Prince Edward High School last year when he was first roped into the Glamour Boys’ senior team, keeps reminding local coaches that teenagers can still be trusted with the responsibility at this level.
The 19-year-old was on target twice during the season-opening Chibuku Super Cup last year when Dynamos reached the semi-finals of the competition.
On Saturday, Antonio was introduced as an 88th minute substitute, with DeMbare leading 1-0, courtesy of Ghanaian forward Emmanuel Paga’s 31st minute strike.
And with 15 minutes of added time, to compensate for the lengthy stoppage in the second half, Antonio was still guaranteed some minutes and he repaid the coach Tonderai Ndiraya’s faith by slotting home the second goal towards the end of the added time.
This was the first time Dynamos have scored more than once in a league game this season. The Glamour Boys have been pathetic in front of goal this season, with four goals in the bag from six games.
“I am happy that we scored more than one goal in this game, which was quite unusual to our team (this season). But I hope that this is a sign of good things to come. I hope we can keep working on our team, especially more on our finishing and get more goals.
“I am happy for young Bill Antonio for scoring his first goal. He has been with us and has been developing and I hope the goal will give him confidence,” said Ndiraya.
Antonio is expected to play a big part in Dynamos’ quest this season. He has made a quick transition from junior football to the domestic top-flight.
His international profile has also risen concurrently from the Zimbabwe’s Under-20 team to the national senior national team within a year. He made his Warriors debut in 2021 and was also short-listed as a reserve player for the AFCON tournament.
Antonio is one of the three ex-Prince Edward High School students along with Luke Musikiri and Hamilton Gomba, that were catapulted to the top by DeMbare coach Ndiraya, courtesy of their Memorandum of Understanding with the Prince Edward Academy.
Ndiraya said the move was aimed at plugging the gap that has seen many coaches in the domestic Premiership recycling players past their peak.
Ghanaian Paga (21) also opened his account in his third appearance for the Glamour Boys on Saturday.
Former Young Warriors defender Tinotenda Muringai (20) was also back in the DeMbare fold, having last played a competitive game for Dynamos last year. The team also featured 21-year-old Brandon Mpofu, who was recently recruited from rivals CAPS United.
“Apart from all the experience that we have in the team, I also want to single out Tinotenda Muringai. I think he had a blinder of a game in the heart of defence.
“It was a good show from him. He had not played for some time now and for him to just be picked from nowhere and put on a good show like that shows that the boy is also developing quite well.”
Dynamos had not won a match since the resumption of the league last month. But Saturday’s win put them on 10 points, with three wins, two losses and a draw from six games.
“It’s work in progress and I am quite excited that we have picked our first set of maximum points this year, after not doing so well in the past two games,” said Ndiraya.
“But I think you have to give it all to the boys for working for the three points. It’s exciting to collect our first set of points this year. What is more exciting is that we have collected maximum points against a good team.
“I would like to give credit to coach Terroso for the job he is doing with Chiefs. This is a good team; a formidable side that will give a lot of teams problems here. They also worked hard but in the end we had to be victors,” said Ndiraya.
By The Herald.
