BULAWAYO - Defending made easy. That is the best way to describe Dynamos centre-back Partson Jaure’s style of play in Sunday Mbada Diamonds Cup semifinal clash between the defending champions and CAPS United.

The young defender never put a foot wrong the entire 90 minutes with a cool-and-collected performance that belied his age.

There was a time during the first half when CAPS midfielder Rahman Kutsanzira had created an avenue on the left flank where Timire Mamvura was clearly uncomfortable playing at rightback but Jaure and his defensive partner Gift Bello made sure that the CAPS attackers did not get a sight at goal.

The two defenders were perfect at keeping track of their opponents and were always correctly positioned to block the strikers’ progress.

One defensive tactic that Jaure employed when dealing with the CAPS forwards was to “show them outside.”
This he did by putting his body in front of his goal at all times and thus forcing the strikers to go wide and therefore away from goal.

This was the reason why the Makepekepe strikers ended up taking too many touches inside the final third of the pitch because the Dynamos central defence was well organized and denied them a clear sight at goal.
In modern football, a player has to be able to attack and defend in equal measure and Jaure did play his part in starting moves from the back.

At one point during the game he had the hordes of Dynamos supporters in delirium as he showcased his dribbling skills after joining the attack.

Being a bit on the short side for a defender, Jaure displayed some good aerial abilities when CAPS tried pumping the ball forward for big striker Nqobile Mpala to run on to in the second half.

The Jaure and Bello combination had successfully shut out former Warriors hotshot Shingi Kawondera in the first half leading to him being replaced by Mpala at halftime.

Mpala also found the defensive pair unyielding and Dynamos goalkeeper George Chigova was on holiday for the entire second half thanks to the efforts of his central defence.

We chose Jaure as our Star of the Week ahead of his defensive partner Bello as his performance was consistent throughout the whole afternoon. Bello also played well until the dying stages when his timing left a lot to be desired. - Sakheleni Nxumalo