{"id":52192,"date":"2026-03-09T23:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T23:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=52192"},"modified":"2026-03-09T23:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T23:48:08","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignfive-takeaways-from-matchday-1-of-the-2026-castle-lager-premier-soccer-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/09\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignfive-takeaways-from-matchday-1-of-the-2026-castle-lager-premier-soccer-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Five takeaways from Matchday 1 of the 2026 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The 2026 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League burst into life over the weekend, and there were a couple of mixed takeaways from the opening round.<\/p>\n<p>Here are five takeaways from Matchday 1.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Opening weekend marred by embarrassing incident<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The encounter between Telone FC and Dynamos was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch at Ascot Stadium in Gweru.<\/p>\n<p>The match was initially scheduled for a 3 PM kick-off on Saturday. It was later postponed to Sunday morning, and the game was played at 11 AM despite the pitch still being in muddy conditions.<\/p>\n<p>The game ended 2-1 in favour of the visitors, Dynamos.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dream start to senior career for 16-year-old forward<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CAPS United teenager Allen Mukombedzi had a dream start to his senior career after scoring on his debut for the Green Machine. The 16-year-old came on from the bench in the 77th minute and netted the winning goal three minutes later in their 2-1 win over Agama FC at Rufaro Stadium on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chahwanda hosts first ever game<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chahwanda Stadium took centre stage over the weekend, as the newly built venue hosted its first top-flight match on Sunday between league newcomers Hardrock FC and Scottland FC.<\/p>\n<p>The Kwekwe stadium is owned by businessman Shepherd Chahwanda, who also owns Hardrock FC.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Herentals hosts first game of the season behind closed doors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Herentals and Chicken Inn played out a 1-1 draw in a match played behind closed doors at Rufaro Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>No fans were allowed at the game after the PSL sanctioned Herentals last season, and the punishment was carried into the current campaign.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jarison Selemani gets the first goal of the season<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It took 96 minutes of action across Matchday 1 for FC Platinum forward Jarison Selemani to score the first goal of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Selemani scored the opening goal in the 2-1 loss against Ngezi Platinum on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The Friday game between MWOS and Hunters, which opened the season, had ended in a goalless draw.<\/p>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related Posts<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#takeaways #Matchday #Castle #Lager #Premier #Soccer #League<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League burst into life over the weekend, and there were a couple of mixed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[240,241,300,243,1034,1035,9920],"class_list":["post-52192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-example-3","tag-castle","tag-lager","tag-league","tag-matchday","tag-premier","tag-soccer","tag-takeaways"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52193,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52192\/revisions\/52193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}