Silver, Wizards in ‘brotherly’ battle
Silver Strikers will today host Wizards FC in a TNM Super League match that will provoke emotions among players and the technical panels of the two sides.
The match comes after Silver signed five players from Wizards, namely Thuso Paipi, Levison Maganizo, Brightone Munthali, Mark Fodya and Steve Micheta when the Peter Mponda side was confirmed relegated from the top-flight league.
But now that Wizards have crawled back into the elite league after winning the play-offs that were meant to identify the 16th team of the league, they are bound to battle against their ‘sold brothers’ in an encounter that promises to leak some melodramatic anxiety.
Moreover, both teams are just coming from their first wins in the Super League this season. Silver beat their capital city rivals Civo United 2-1 while Wizards pipped Red Lions 1-0.
Nevertheless, the teams have equal strengths, statistically, considering that they drew in their two meetings in the Super League last season. They drew 1-1 in the first-round and 2-2 in the second round.
At present, Wizards are 10th with three points from one game, a place above the Bankers who also have three points but have played two games more.
“It will be an interesting match because we deploy a similar system of play and some players that played together for a long time at Wizards will face off as opponents for the first time. The side that will defend well will take the day and we are determined to achieve that feat,” said Mponda, who is Wizards’ technical director.
On the other hand, Silver team manager Francis Songo said the players that jumped ship from the Wizards are psychologically strong for the challenge.
“All the five players that we signed from Wizards are likely to feature in this match and they are mentally conditioned to take the challenge. Moreover, we are just coming from our first win in three games and we are determined to maintain the streak,” he said.
In another crunch encounter this afternoon, Mzuni, with six points, are willing to maintain their second place as they host 14th positioned Max Bullets (two points) at Mzuzu Stadium.
Be Forward Wanderers, third on the log table with five points, take on sixth-placed Civo United (four points) at Kamuzu Stadium while Epac play Dwangwa United at Civo Stadium. Both sides have three points but Epac are ninth on the table thanks to superior goal difference whereas Dwangwa are 12th. n
