Published by the government of Zimbabwe
13 May 2008
Harare — FOR nine years they were out of the continental heavyweights' football radar but when they finally announced their return with a knockout blow that floored African champions Etoile du Sahel at the weekend, Dynamos were back in the headlines around the globe.
Not even their biggest fan had given DeMbare a chance ahead of their showdown against a team that won the Champions League last season by destroying Egyptian giants Al Ahly and then finished fourth at the Fifa World Club Championships.
Headline writers in many newsrooms across the country and the continent were already looking for the best possible way to describe what they believed would be a humiliation of the Harare giants in Sousse.
There were a number of doubting Thomases -- both at home and abroad -- in what was effectively Mission Impossible for a team returning to the Champions League safari for the first time in nine long years.
Some of the caution was understandable -- after all noone had beaten Etoile du Sahel in their home ground in continental inter-club tournaments ahead of the Saturday showdown.
But some of the pre-match pessimism went a little bit too far.
Take this story from Stanford Chiwanga, writing in The Sunday News column Talking Sport, this last Sunday.
"Twenty four hours after the Bosso debacle Dynamos beat African club champions Etoile du Sahel by a solitary Desmond Maringwa strike.
"In a nutshell by the time you read this article the two local continental representatives might have said good-bye to their dreams of emulating the great Dynamos side of 1998 which reached the final of the Champions League.
"Who in their right mind might have believed that Bosso would surprise all and sundry by conjuring a great Houdini escape? No one.
"Who would have been so naïve to think DeMbare were going to cast Etoile du Sahel into the dustbin of African club football?
"I believe no one was crazy enough to think likewise. The chances of the two giants of Zimbabwe football returning home triumphant were as high as the survival prospects of an ice cube in hell.
"If they did the unthinkable -- a lion would eat grass, a dog would grow horns and pigs would fly.
"Dynamos, what is all the hype about? Yes they beat Etoile du Sahel but that is because Sahel let them get away with murder. If Sahel wanted to bury DeMbare in Harare they could have done so, but they did not.
"That certainly means they will do so in Tunisia. In Tunisia not even a prayer will save DeMbare from the marauding Tunisians. Dynamos will certainly be outclassed if not out gifted.
"Remember this is a team that massacred Al Ahly three nil in Cairo. And they scored almost half a dozen in the previous round -- they won by five goals to nil at home.
"Highlanders and Dynamos fans will without doubt curse me but nothing can be further from the truth. Perhaps I am not a prophet of doom. I have been vindicated."
Tough luck Stanford. Now you can face the backlash.
Others were less hysterical.
Ghana Broadcasting Corporation
"The Champions League title holders Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia were beaten 1-0 in the away leg of their tie against Zimbabwe's Dynamos.
"But they will surely be confident of overturning that scoreline in the home leg. Apart from the natural home advantage, the visitors will have had a torrid journey to north Africa.
After appealing for extra funds to allow them to afford to pay for the trip, they set off from Harare on Thursday evening, and were due to travel via Johannesburg and Cairo, before arriving in Sousse late on Friday.
The length of the journey and the lack of preparation time for the Zimbabweans make Etoile strong favourites for the tie."
Nothing beats success and the global sport coverage was yesterday still awash with DeMbare's sensational success.
Fifa.com -- the official website of Fifa
The history of Dynamos includes a prior appearance in the Caf Champions League final, but there are many who believe that the Zimbabwean club matched that achievement with their weekend's win over holders Etoile Sahel.
The Harare-based club certainly performed superbly in putting aside problems in raising cash and botched travel arrangements to win 1-0 away in Sousse against last year's champions and advance to the group phase of the competition for the first time in a decade.
Dynamos won their tie 2-0 on aggregate on a weekend in which the stranglehold of clubs from the Arabic-speaking north was shattered.
Last year, seven of the eight clubs who reached the league phase were north Africans; this year, there will be only three.
Dynamos only arrived in Tunisia at 2am on the morning of their match against Etoile Sahel and with a slender 1-0 lead from the first leg in Harare.
The Zimbabwean club had earlier in the week considered withdrawing because changes in the foreign currency regulations in their country had vastly increased the cost of their trip to Tunisia.
Yet despite such adversity, Dynamos put up a sterling performance, the highlight of which was a stunning long-range goal for Benjamin Marere, who blasted home a volley from 20 metres to silence the home crowd.
However, the star of the game was goalkeeper Willard Manyatera, who kept Etoile Sahel's much-vaunted strike force at bay with a string of key saves, consigning the Sousse club to their first defeat in 72 continental club competition matches played at the Olympic Stadium.
James Copnall -- BBC Sport
Reigning African champions Etoile du Sahel were huge favourites against Zimbabwe's Dynamos, who at one stage seemed on the point of pulling out of the competition because of financial problems.
Instead Dynamos found the money needed for the trip to Tunisia, and Benjamin Marere scored an historic winner to give them a thoroughly unexpected 2-0 aggregate win.
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation commentator Charles Mabika says the celebrations lasted all night into Sunday in Harare.
"People couldn't believe it. It slowly dawned on everybody that Dynamos have done the almost impossible -- knocking out the defending champions," Mabika told BBC Sport.
"I can see the Dynamos players just dying to go through to the final, repeating the feat they accomplished surprisingly way back in 1998."
Panapress
Harare, Zimbabwe -- Against all odds, Zimbabwe's Dynamos football club at the weekend booted Tunisia's Etoile du Sahel -- African Champions League title holder -- out of this year's competition away from home.
The Zimbabweans took a slender 1-0 lead into the weekend match in Sousse, Tunisia, and, in a rare feat, beat Etoile du Sahel 1-0 on the club's home turf to progress to the next round on a 2-0 aggregate.
The lone goal was scored by Benjamin Marere in the first stanza of the match.
The victory, the biggest upset of weekend African Champions League matches, sent Dynamos supporters into wild celebrations back home.
The club is the reigning soccer champion in Zimbabwe but, paired against Etoile du Sahel -- and away from home -- few had given Dynamos a chance.
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