dyton mupawaenda
Sharuko on Saturday
IT was a game for the ages – a six-goal thriller, spiced with goals of the highest quality with Barcelona and Inter Milan taking fans on a journey to football’s Dreamland.
This was football at its purest, at its finest, at its highest peak, in its greatest form, in its finest shape — a slugfest that was as wild as it wasn’t mild, as breath-taking as it was beautiful.
This was a game that was played at the peak of football’s Mount Everest, on the green fields of the game’s Garden of Eden, a fine exhibition of both talent and endurance which, at times, stretched our fantasies to breaking point.
Lamine Yamal, the teenage talent that comes once-in-a-generation took us down memory lane to a place and time when, in the same Barca colours, we got our first glimpses of a teenage Lionel Messi.
There are some pundits who are saying he is the closest thing we have seen to Messi and, somehow, the football gods ensured that he shared the same initial, in his first name, like the great Argentine.
His amazing goal was a product of his unique talent and the arrogance that comes with being so extravagantly talented – the instincts to try things others will feel are impossible and the confidence to do it at such a grand stage.
He wasn’t the only main actor on the night.
Denzel Dumfries, the Flying Dutchman, scored another goal for the archives when he sprang into the air and found the right balance of gymnastics to twist his frame in mid-air and hook the ball into the net.
But, this wasn’t just about the beautiful goals.
This was about football being taken to another level, being exhibited at both pace and beauty. It kept taking our breath away and was a reminder of why it’s called the world’s most beautiful game.
This was the romantic side of football, the seductive powers of the game being expressed with such freedom and beauty by some of its finest talents. The wizardry of the Barca forwards being matched by the sheer brute force of the dogged opposition.
You blink, you miss, you err, you are punished and fittingly Raphina closed the scoring chapter with a goal plucked from heaven which ensured the scores would be tied ahead of the second leg in Milan.
It’s one of the game’s faultlines that Raphina’s fierce shot, which crashed against the crossbar, would have been lost in the bin which contains off targets and forgotten as just another statistic.
However, fate intervened and ensured it will be remembered for its beauty and the part it played in ensuring that the game ended all square as it bounced off the post and then hit the body of the ‘keeper before spinning over the line.
On foundations of such amazing beauty, football ensures that it keeps its status as the world’s most beautiful game, miles ahead of everything that all the other branches of sport, combined, can give us.
On nights like these, the UEFA Champions League has built its global fan base, which runs into billions.
And, in a world being scarred by the conflict and deaths in Gaza and raging trade wars, this was a reminder that it’s not all doom and gloom on our beautiful planet right now.
A JOURNEY BACK INTO THE PAST
For some of us, from the old school, such titanic games drag us back to a place and time when our domestic Premiership used to serve us some classics which produced memories which will live for a life-time.
Of course, the standards were not at the level that we saw on Wednesday night but the showdowns were classics, in their own right, at their own level, and that we still talk about them is a testimony of how good the battles were.
It’s like the classic battle between Dynamos and CAPS United in the Africa Day Cup showdown at Rufaro in 1994.
That game, just like the one we saw on Wednesday night, produced six goals and while they might not have been of the same quality we saw in that Champions League blockbuster, they were still some very good goals.
Chamu Musanhu says it’s the greatest derby he featured in and it’s easy to understand why he believes that way.
The Green Machine raced to a 2-0 lead at the break, with the great Joe Mugabe scoring the second goal, but the Glamour Boys came roaring back after the interval and scored four times without reply.
Tauya Murewa, the Flying Doctor, and Vitalis Takawira, so good they nicknamed him Digital, were the conductors of the orchestra as the Glamour Boys produced probably their best 45 minutes in a Derby.
Having been exposed to such fierce and quality battles in the past, it’s difficult for some of us to now deal with the reality that both Dynamos and CAPS United have lost their way so badly the only thing remaining about the Derby is its name.
This week, for the first time in the 48 years that Dynamos and CAPS United have featured in the domestic Premiership, we saw the strange sight of the two teams hovering in the relegation zone.
DeMbare are 15th on the table, occupying the final relegation slot, with eight out of a possible 27 points, having already dropped 19 points so far during this miserable season.
Makepekepe are 16th on the table, deep in relegation trouble, with seven points out of a possible 27, having already dropped 20 points so far during this miserable season.
The shocking reality is that if both Dynamos and CAPS United fail to win this weekend, which appears the likely outcomes against Scottland and ZPC Kariba, the two giants will occupy the last two slots on the table in the event Kwekwe United and Triangle win their games.
Kwekwe United even have a game in hand.
I have covered the domestic Premiership for 32 years now, since I began my journey in November 1992, and never in my wildest nightmares did I imagine that such a scenario would one day play out.
That I would, one day, report on a scenario where I would write that the two bottom clubs on the table in our Premiership were Dynamos and CAPS United.
BENZA ISN’T THE PROBLEM
Given that Kwekwe United and Triangle were not in the Premiership last season, the reality we face today is that the bottom two clubs right now, among those who were part of the league last season, are Dynamos and CAPS United.
If that doesn’t make the likes of George Shaya and Joel Shambo turn in their graves in both frustration, and disbelief, then nothing will ever will.
Somehow, against this disaster that we are facing, we find ourselves trying to shift focus and find refuge mocking someone like Innocent Benza because, according to some arguments, his continued presence in the Herentals team is a mockery to the Premiership.
That is what the social media hawks were concentrating on yesterday after the Students lost 0-1 to Scottland on Thursday.
Benza will turn 54 this month.
That is the same age as Isabell Werth, one of the most decorated Olympians, was when she competed at the Paris Olympics in France last year.
That is nine years younger than the age of Robert Carmona, who has played for 30 clubs in Italy, Spain, United States, El Salvador, Paraguay and Argentina in over 2200 official matches and, at 63, holds the Guinness World Record for the longest football career.
For me, the obsession with mocking Benza, who is showing a lot of us that being active, and being fit, has nothing to do with age, is a distraction from the real issues we should be discussing about our game.
It is meant to distract us from asking questions about why Dynamos, in particular, have become a shell of themselves that scoring a goal has now become something like a miracle.
Benza is not the problem, the problem is those young players who are failing to make their numbers count and, if the Herentals owner makes his team play a man short, as they claim, are failing to take advantage of that fantasy and help their teams overrun the Students.
Benza played the first half on Thursday and it ended goalless even though they were playing against a team which fielded the leading three goal-scorers from last season.
The goal which decided the match was scored after Benza had been pulled out at the break.
The Herentals that Benza plays for have scored four goals this season, twice as many as Dynamos have scored, including a gift own goal from the opponents for the Glamour Boys, yet we want to spend time talking about whether the legislator should be playing or not.
The Herantals that Benza plays for have nine points while Dynamos, who are said to be playing without a man short, have eight and CAPS United have seven.
The Herentals that Benza plays for have won twice while DeMbare, who are said to be playing without a man short, have just one win.
The Herentals that Benza plays for have conceded five goals and CAPS United, who are said to be playing without a man short, have conceded twice that number — 10 goals.
For me, that is where the focus should be — why have DeMbare and Makepekepe become so bad that they find themselves trailing a team which, according to these critics, always play a man short because of Benza?
Last season, Herentals finished ahead of both Dynamos and CAPS.
Benza is enjoying his fairytale at his club and, like LeBron and Bronny James, finding the joy that comes with playing in a team which features a father and his son.
You might now like it and that’s fine but the eyeballs should be on Dynamos and CAPS United — that is the real story.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Khamaldinhoooooooooooooooooo!
Text Feedback: 0772545199
WhatsApp: 0772545199
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
You can also interact with me on Twitter (@Chakariboy), Facebook, Instagram (sharukor) and Skype (sharuko58).
Online Reporter