This year’s Blantyre Derby between Mighty Mukuru Wanderers and FCB Nyasa Big Bullets has the cinders to light it up.
The match will decide which way, come season’s end, the league title will go especially for the Nomads who, after losing 1-0 away to Karonga United last Sunday, saw their gap with Silver Striker widening to six points.
It is one of the few occasions when the roar of the opposing sets of fans can match the architectural grandeur of Kamuzu Stadium; when the fans’ combined manic energies seem to shake up the foundations of Malawi’s oldest football stadium.
But who needs it most? We preview this epic battle between the two old rivals in Malawian football.
This massive contest has come at a time when the Lali Lubani boys are chasing Silver for the league title.
At the same time, Bullets, the masters of Blantyre Derby and the current league defending champions are struggling to catch the Central Bankers in the title race as they are 13 points behind Peter Mponda’s charges with eight games left to play.
If we look at the two teams, Wanderers need this Derby more than their rivals, but they are meeting them at a time when they are eager to make things happen and possibly, pile pressure on the top two until the final game of the season.
The Nomads, who last won the league in 2017, are second in the table with 44 points, while Bullets, who are the undisputed champions and have won the title for the last five seasons, are fourth in the standings with 37 points.
Wanderers, playing away to Karonga United, conceded in the 5th minute of the match to drop three points courtesy of a strike from Alfred Chizinga.
Had they won the match, they should have reduced the gap between them and Silver to just three points as the Central Bankers, facing Crerk Sporting Club away from home, had to come from behind with an 80th-minute goal from Uchizi Vunga to draw 2-2.
As for Bullets, they were away to Civil Service United in the Airtel Top 8 quarter-final second leg, in which they drew 0-0 but progressed to the semis on a 2-0 first-leg aggregate win.
Football pundits have duly noted that the two teams, as usually happen ahead of a derby, have dropped points. The priority is the spectacle ahead – nothing else matters.
Many derbies in recent years have felt like scraps between the two powerful gangs whose feuds, especially Wanderers, seemed to be only about honour, the code, and nothing more as they have only won the league once in almost a decade as compared to their rivals who have eight league titles in the last ten years.
But for the first time in years, this duel has far-reaching consequences. Whoever wins won’t only get the twin rights of months-long gloating and the freedom of the “city” of Blantyre; there are also three crucial points to be gained from the rival.
A win by either of the teams, especially Wanderers, will see them cutting the gap with Silver to just three points at least for a day as the Bankers will host Civil Service United on Sunday in Capital City Derby.
However, if Bullets collect three points from the contest, it will mean that they are still in contention to battle for the title even though the gap between the defending champions and the area 47-based side will be at 10 points but with a game more than the log leaders.
Their previous league match, played in May this year, which ended 1-1, must fester in the memory of the minds of players and fans alike. Two months later, the two teams met again, but this time, in the Round of 16 of the FDH Bank Cup at the same venue.
Bullets scored early to beat their rivals 2-1 through a brace from Babatunde Adepoju, who, since joining the People’s Team, has haunted his former club.
It’s a derby that will have bad consequences for the loser, especially if the loser is Wanderers.
Head-to-Head
In the current season, the first-round match ended 1-1 despite being dominated by Wanderers, who pressed from all angles and created lots of goal-scoring opportunities.
For the past decade, Wanderers only registered victory over their bitter rivals once, a 1-0 win courtesy of a first-half strike from Vincent Nyangulu in September of the 2020/21 season, but, it has always been a derby with draws whenever they meet apart from Cup matches where Bullets have dominated.
However, Bullets have had seven wins in the league over Wanderers since the 2014 season.
The Nomads would want to push for an early goal and disturb their opponents who, in recent matches, have had early goals to manage their fitness levels due to the congested fixtures.
However, Bullets are the masters of Blantyre derbies. With injuries hitting them hard, many will see them as underdogs going into this showdown, but they can produce results out of nowhere.
In 2017, Wanderers were favourites to beat Bullets, who had several of their key players injured, but the People’s Team carried the day with an emphatic victory to remind theirneighboursrs that when it comes to bragging rights, Blantyre City belongs to them.
Previous Meetings
2022 season
-Nyasa Big Bullets 2-1 Mighty Wanderers
-Mighty Mukuru Wanderers 0-0 Bullets
2020/21 season
-Mighty Wanderers 1-1 Nyasa Big Bullets
-Nyasa Big Bullets 0-1 Mighty Wanderers
2019 season
-Be Forward Wanderers 0-0 Nyasa Big Bullets
-Nyasa Big Bullets 0-0 Be Forward Wanderers
2018 season
-Nyasa Big Bullets 1-1 Be Forward Wanderers
-Be Forward Wanderers 0-0 Nyasa Big Bullets
2017 season
-Be Forward Wanderers 1-1 Nyasa Big Bullets
-Nyasa Big Bullets 1-0 Be Forward Wanderers
2016 season
-Be Forward Wanderers 0-1 Nyasa Big Bullets
-Nyasa Big Bullets 1-1 Be Forward Wanderers
2015 season
-Nyasa Big Bullets 1-0 Be Forward Wanderers
-Be Forward Wanderers 1-2 Nyasa Big Bullets
2014 season
-FCB Nyasa Big Bullets 2-0 Mighty Mukuru Wanderers
-Mighty Mukuru Wanderers 0-1 FCB Nyasa Big Bullets
Team News
Stanley Sanudi will be assessed by Wanderers’s medical team after missing the last two games for the Lali Lubani boys.
As for Bullets, they have every player on board ahead of the match apart from Mike Mkwate, who is waiting for the final assessment from the team’s medical team.
What the two coaches said about the match:
Meck Mwase:
“It’s an important game for us to win so that we keep pace with Silver Strikers in the championship race. We have moved on from last week’s disappointment, and we are fully focusing on this match. It’s been a long time since we beat Bullets, but on Saturday, we will do whatever it takes to win.”
Kalisto Pasuwa
“A coach always trains his team to win, and at the end of the day, maybe after having said you need a win, you end up having the other result, which is part of football. So I think we need to be very positive; we also need to improve in some areas where we were very complacent when we were playing against them by leaving them to dominate in more areas in terms of possession. So we are saying, let’s go out and improve again on where we left.”
The derby is the closest thing in the modern game to football’s primitive origins.
It has all: the madness and passion, the tribalism and the tribe’s claim to territory – the quest to “own” a locale, be it Soweto (Kaizer Chiefs vs Orlando Pirates); Cairo (Al Alhly vs Zamalek); Buenos Aires (Boca Juniors vs River Plate); Manchester (City vs United); El Classico (Real Madrid vs Barcelona) or the Milan derby (Inter Milan vs AC Milan).
Don’t believe it when the coaches say there is nothing more to this match than the three points they are playing for. Three points from a derby are worth much more.
As Galeano succinctly put it, football is a “ritual sublimation of war.” The derby remains the only spectacle that doesn’t feel like a corporate retreat. It’s a war – the only war that the United Nations Security Council doesn’t have to condemn.
