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Sharuko On Saturday
SILAS Songani, the Zimbabwe international forward who has played his way into the hearts and soul of football fans in this country, was a prominent feature on the Football Africa magazine programme on SuperSport 9 this week. The Harare City wide man’s stunning goal, in the 4-0 destruction of Highlanders that powered the Sunshine Boys into pole position in the race for the league championship with just a game to go, was named by the producers of Football Africa as one of the Top Three goals in League and Cup matches played on the continent in the past week.
His teammate Nathan Ziwini’s superb flying header, to open the floodgates at Rufaro last Sunday in a comprehensive victory for his side that turned the tide in their favour in the championship race, was also named as one of the Top Three goals in League and Cup matches on the continent in the past seven days.
Peter “Pinches” Opiyo’s superb goal, which powered AFC Leopards to victory in their GOTV Shield Cup final against bitter rivals Gor Mahia in Kenya, connecting a low cross from the right to fire it first time into the roof, also took its pride of place in the Top Three goals as seen by the producers of Football Africa.
But there was no questioning which was the best of the three fine goals.
It had to be Songani’s fine solo effort, which the producers of the television programme showed four times yesterday on their show, from different angles, as if to give this beautiful goal the credit it certainly deserved.
The more you watch it the more that its true value and beauty comes out — he collects a ball wide on the right, with the acres of open space in front of him providing him with the platform to use his pace and trickery to thrive, and then starts running directly at the next defender, who stands in his way, Bosso skipper Innocent Mapuranga.
A drop of the shoulder packages and sells the dummy that he intends to go inside, into the left channel, and Mapuranga swallows the bait, like a hungry bream that has just swum into a trap full of worms oblivious of the dangers that lie underneath, and by the time the Bosso skipper realises he has been fooled, Songani has created that little pocket of space he wanted on the right.
With Mapuranga eliminated, as he struggled just to keep his balance let alone fulfilling the assignment of stopping Songani who had long found a way past him, the diminutive forward charges into the box, oozing with confidence, and then drives an angled shot that finds its way home for one of the goals of the season.
If Harare City can hold their nerve on Super Sunday tomorrow and win their maiden championship, which will be a popular triumph among thousands, if not millions of neutrals around the country, they will look back to last Sunday, when a loss would have eliminated them from the race, but they somehow found their rhythm to destroy the team that would have kicked them out of the marathon.
While a championship is not won by just one game, and it’s a product of a season where a set of results combine to give one team the best return of points compared to any other side, there is always that one defining game where the championship was won and, for Harare City, last Sunday’s stunning performance was the stuff that champions are made of.
There is no guarantee that City will win the championship race tomorrow, stranger things have been known to happen in this game than the straight forward issue of a team collapsing on the final hurdle after being overwhelmed by the pressure that such a scenario presents, and while they have their fate in their hands, there is no reason why either Dynamos or Highlanders should not dream.
That Songani is suspended from this game makes the mission even tougher and those who are saying CAPS United will be like lambs being driven into the slaughter chamber might just have got their predictions wrong even though the Green Machine’s sensational collapse, in conceding four quick goals to lose 2-4 in the same stadium in a game that all but secured Motor Action the title three years ago, appears to support that theory.
But even if Harare City fail to win the championship, they have been a huge success story this season — they only lost in the Mbada Diamonds Cup in the semi-finals on penalties, they have won SIX more league games, at this point of the season, have lost FOUR fewer matches and are 16 points better than their tally with just a game to go last year.
In sharp contrast, Highlanders and Dynamos have shed 15 points from what they had in the bag, with just a game to go in the championship race last year, DeMbare have won SEVEN fewer matches and Bosso have lost SEVEN more matches.
For City to keep going, as modest and lightweight as they are, fighting toe-to-toe with the giants, and take their challenge to the final weekend of the race with them being the only team that has their destiny in their hands, is something that has been a huge success story that should be celebrated.
And, even if you don’t like them, I’m pretty sure you will like some of their players, like Songani, and some of their special goals, like the one this fellow scored at Rufaro last Sunday.
When Ezra And Company See Red
EZRA “Tshisa” Sibanda on Wednesday became the latest, in a growing list of sports journalists, analysts, commentators, gurus or whatever they call themselves, to turn their guns on us as the curtains begin to be drawn on this football season of madness.
One of them, who used to work for this newspaper on a part-time basis and still retains our respect despite his recent conversion into a merchant of abuse directed towards us on social media sites, set the ball rolling by mocking us on his Facebook page when Highlanders soared to the top of the Premiership table.
In his small world, Bosso’s rise into pole position in the championship race that Wednesday, represented a triumph for our sister newspaper, Chronicle, over us because on the same afternoon, Dynamos had stumbled and settled for a home draw against Shabanie.
Somehow, even our good and sober colleagues from the other newspaper, whom we respect as partners in this industry and fair rivals in an endless, if not vicious, battle for the hearts and soul of the readers, surprisingly went on the offensive this week and described us as journalists with over-inflated egos.
Augustine Hwata was criticised for giving Murape Murape a medium to tell the country, and the world, his thoughts about referees and, suddenly, the very people who yesterday told us they were champions of media freedom now dumped their borrowed robes and found offence in the very freedoms they said were priceless simply because they didn’t like the Dynamos captain’s message.
Shoot the messenger, they cried out loud and clear, who the hell did this Murape think he is, they questioned, and the fact that his position as Dynamos skipper doesn’t only give him authority but also gives weight to what he says, no matter how offensive his words might be to our ears, was conveniently forgotten in the mist created by their volley of insults.
Petros Kausiyo and Grace Chingoma, who had been away from the newsroom and the capital on a study break, found themselves being cartooned as having drowned in a muddy pool of disappointment, where the pain of failure was so choking that it could be felt as far afield as Swaziland, on that Wednesday afternoon when Bosso took pole position in the marathon while DeMbare sank into an asbestos mine trap erected by Shabanie.
Of course, I wasn’t spared, and you probably guessed right that I was the target of the worst of the verbal abuse but the good thing about me is that two decades spent in the trenches of this explosive minefield have helped create a cell of immunity that forms a protective wall and shields me from such attacks, as and when they happen.
Criticism on Facebook supporters forums, where blind loyalty to their favourite team’s brand and its interests means that there is very little room given to common sense and anyone who thinks otherwise is branded a disgrace or the biggest enemy to mankind since the death of Judas Iscariot, is something that one should expect, when you work in such public fields.
But when fellow professionals, including some who seemingly suffer from chameleonic syndrome that makes them politicians, when it suits the season, and football analysts, commentators or gurus when the political fields fail to deliver the instant fruits that they might have promised from a distance, don’t only join that bandwagon but become cheerleaders of that process, it becomes a bit worrying if not annoying.
When it becomes a sin to give the captain of the defending champions a platform to say what he feels, in a race where his team are actively involved and chasing a third straight league championship title, and we begin to find romance in censoring whatever he says, even when we all know that it makes sense and he is speaking on behalf of millions of the voiceless, then we are happy and very comfortable to be labelled as sinners.
We didn’t invite Murape for an interview, after the controversy of those mid-week fixtures, but the DeMbare skipper came into our newsroom to give his story and the reason that he chose us as the medium he could trust, not only to bring out exactly what he wanted to say but who would not censure his remarks for fear because they flew against our dreams for that other team to be crowned champions, can only be explained by the veteran forward.
That Dynamos are hated with a passion is normal, the combination of their size and the success stories they have written in a remarkable 50-year journey that has set benchmarks for Zimbabwean football, makes them such an attractive package for those who don’t believe in them, and there are a lot of people in that corner, who pray for their destruction and hope for that good day when they will wake up and the Glamour Boys are not part of the domestic football landscape.
But that Dynamos are also loved with a passion is also true and there is a huge football constituency out there that believes in everything that these Glamour Boys represent and while the majority of those people don’t have profiles, which give them voices to speak on radio during talk shows when it comes to our national game, it doesn’t mean they don’t have a voice and, on the occasions their team captain speaks, he should be ignored because his views are dangerous to the game.
We don’t hate Dynamos and neither do we support them but what we do is give them their respect, as the biggest football club in the country, as the most successful football team in this country, as a club that has represented this nation with dignity on the continent, despite their limited resources, and flown our flag proudly among the giants of the game in Africa.
When we begin to derive joy in silencing voices from such an institution or, to put it the other way, when we begin to find fault in the messenger who carries their message, even on the occasions when they are the defending champions in the race and are still firmly in the picture for a hat-trick of titles, then something has gone horribly wrong.
The Bekezela Makeka Controversy That Made Us Enemy Number One
When Bekezela Makeka sent off two Triangle players and their coach and then gave 16 minutes of time added on at Barbourfields, it was always going to trigger a wave of debate not because of what the referee did was wrong but because it was something that had a controversial touch and would generate a lot of discussion on a number of platforms.
Our crime, it appears, was to give people a platform to discuss the events at Barbourfields and, even though we never said that Bekezela was wrong because we knew he was empowered by the laws of the game to give as much time as he deemed necessary and send off those who were a nuisance, some people feel we should not have raised any question.
That Bekezela was the same match official who had walked onto the pitch, when CAPS United were given a penalty that was later annulled after an unprecedented caucus of the match officials, on the domestic scene, at Barbourfields this year, was not supposed to be discussed.
That Bekezela was the same referee who had handled the Highlanders/CAPS United league game at Barbourfields again last year, sending off big goalkeeper Edmore Sibanda, was not supposed to be mentioned even though why he kept being assigned to officiate in this particular match was a point that needed to be discussed.
That Bekezela was the referee in that Highlanders/Blue Rangers Mbada Diamonds Cup first round tie at Barbourfields, which was stopped for 13 minutes and ended with the visitors’ ‘keeper Pedzi Gumiremhete being sent off, was not supposed to be mentioned even though a return of the same referee sending off three visiting ‘keepers in three big matches featuring the same team, was a big discussion point.
Even the light-hearted story where Ozias Zibande appears to have perfected the art of scoring, deep in time added on, on the occasions Bekezela effects his extended time added on, with the winning header against Blue Rangers and Triangle, is something that was not supposed to be mentioned.
We did and we have become enemy number one but, once again, that comes with the trenches.
Is This Just A Coincidence?
1. CHURCH has 6 letters, MOSQUE also has 6 letters.
2. BIBLE has 5 letters, QURAN also has 5 letters.
3. LIVE has 4 letters, and so does DEAD.
4. HATE has 4 letters, so does LOVE.
5. ENEMIES has 7 letters, so does FRIENDS.
6. LYING has 5 letters, so does TRUTH.
7. NEGATIVE has 8 letters, so does POSITIVE.
8. BELOW has 5 letters, but so does ABOVE.
9. RIGHT has 5 letters, so does WRONG.
10. RICH has 4 letters, so does POOR.
11. KNOWLEDGE has 9 letters, so does IGNORANCE.
12. FAIL has 4 letters, so does PASS
13. FAILURE has 7 letters, so does SUCCESS.
So, on the eve of Super Sunday where the biggest SUCCESS story of what has been a riveting Castle Lager Premiership championship race will be written with the winners being decided, and the last team to join the ranks of those to be dressed in robes of FAILURE will be known, it’s interesting, isn’t it, that there is a thin line that divides SUCCESS and FAILURE.
Even the number of letters that construct the two words are the same.
May the best team win the championship and take their place in the kingdom of champions.
To God Be The Glory!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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