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When gold, which in this case is represented by a blue ribbon franchise like CAPS United, starts to show signs of rust, what then will happen to iron, represented in this case by such unfashionable clubs like Monomotapa?
ON Wednesday, just two days after our return from a week-long visit to the Bundesliga in Germany, I found myself going back to the familiar surroundings of a domestic Premiership game.
Four days earlier, I had been to the Westfalenstadion, in a bright sea of black and gold colours, as 80 000 screaming Borussia Dortmund fans packed their stadium to the rafters and the iconic Yellow Wall, on the south bank of the ground, roared its approval.
A day earlier, I had been in Bavaria, in the heat of Oktoberfest, and went to the SLG Arena, a compact and modern state-of-the-art football stadium that had provided a home for Knowledge Musona last season, and was part of a full-house 30 660 fans for a Friday night league match.
So, in just two days, I had been to both worlds of the Bundesliga, a small team like Augsburg and its small stadium, and a huge team like Borussia Dortmund and its massive stadium, which is the biggest football ground in Germany.
The Times of London newspaper named the Westfalenstadion, the best football stadium in the world, thanks to the electric atmosphere generated by the fans inside that ground, and just a few minutes into our visit on Saturday afternoon, we began to see why this is, indeed, a special cathedral of dreams.
The dominant feature, at both the SLG Arena and the Westfalenstadion, was the raucous atmosphere in both stadiums, the intensity of the life in the stands, the spectacle of the colours, the songs that were sung in unison, the entire stadium playing its part in the singing, everything about that electric stage that simply blew you away.
Then there was the beer, lots of it, consumed just about everywhere inside the stadiums but, crucially, even in their marked drunken state, the fans knew their responsibilities, and we didn’t see even one empty beer plastic tumbler being tossed onto the pitch, even when it appeared the referee was making questionable decisions against their team, as was the case that night in Augsburg.
You immediately felt the special bond, between the fans and their team, there were no whistles demanding that the coach makes a change, there were no boos when the opposition appeared to be on top and, at the SLG Arena, the noise inside the stadium even went a notch higher when the visiting team scored to take a 2-1 lead.
The defining moment for me came late in the game at the Westfalenstadion when Jakub Blaszczykowski scored the fifth goal, to round up a 5-0 mauling for Dortmund, and bruised Freiburg coach, Christian Streich, emerged from his bench to try and send some instructions to his battered troops.
Suddenly, there was a wave of the travelling Freiburg fans that rose at once, at the sight of their coach, and given that their team was 0-5 down, and this is not a Mickey Mouse club but one that is playing in the Europa League, the immediate assumption was that they were all about to pour their frustrations on their beleaguered gaffer.
But this was another world and I watched, in amazement, as that rising wall of travelling Freiburg fans burst into a choreographed noisy chant, and then united in salute, cheering their deflated coach, who responded by acknowledging the gesture, and even in this gloom of darkness, nothing could shatter the unity between the fans and their team.
On Wednesday, I went to the National Sports Stadium and the 500-or-so CAPS United fans, lost in the vast acres of space in the giant stadium, provided a grim reminder that I was back to the gloom of the domestic Premiership, and it was hard to imagine that this was the third biggest team in the country, the second biggest team in the capital and, crucially, one of the sides in the championship race.
If a club like CAPS United, who have forced themselves into the championship race for the first time in eight years, could only get 500-or-so fans for their home match, days after booking their place in the quarter-finals of the Mbada Diamonds Cup, what did this mean for a team like Monomotapa, a team like Motor Action or a team like Harare City?
When gold, which in this case is represented by a blue ribbon franchise like CAPS United, starts to show signs of rust, what then will happen to iron, represented in this case by such unfashionable clubs like Monomotapa?
Joe Makuvire, the CAPS United chief executive, blamed it on this match being a mid-week fixture but, surely, have the Green Machine become so unattractive that on a Wednesday afternoon, in bright summer sunshine in Harare, they can only attract about 500 fans to their match even when that contest has the spicy sub-plot of a duel against a hyper talkative old boy like Gishon Ntini?
For goodness sake, even when we were at our weakest and facing relegation from Division Two, I don’t remember seeing less than 500 fans at Chakari Stadium to cheer our beloved Falcon Gold back in the early ‘80s when my passion for this team knew no boundaries and its star players, like Mutambarika Chirwa and Aidan Sweet, were our real heroes.
I knew CAPS United back then, they represented something very big in our football, something far bigger than our Falcon Gold, and such was their huge appeal they had lots of fans even in our small community, but never did I ever imagine, that I would one day go to their home game and see a smaller crowd to what I used to see at our little stadium in Chakari.
Somehow, that small crowd didn’t make headlines the following day, which was surprising, because to me that was the big story, the big focus of debate, what was happening to our football, how come the game was suddenly losing its appeal to the fans, what did this mean for a super brand like CAPS United?
Ours Is A Different Ball World
For the Freiburg fans at the Westalenstadion last Saturday afternoon, their true passion for their club came when it conceded the fifth goal, and somehow they all rose in unison to salute their coach, despite the eyesore of the debris of the wreckage caused by the destruction inflicted by a fiery Dortmund side.
What mattered to them was the next game, which was coming in five days time, in the Europa League against Sevilla in Spain and they lost that one too and, while I didn’t see the live coverage of that tie, I’m pretty sure that the Freiburg fans saluted their team when that game was over.
Now, we come to our world and our sister radio station, Star-FM, had an interview with the Dynamos chairman, Kenny Mubaiwa, after the Glamour Boys crashed to that 2-4 defeat at the Colliery on Wednesday.
Incredibly, Mubaiwa had to deal with issues related to whether or not Pasuwa’s job was safe after the loss in Hwange.
“If there are any changes, we will see at the end of the season, then we will see where we want to change, not just change just because we lost to Hwange,” Mubaiwa told Star-FM.
Our sister newspaper, the top-selling tabloid H-Metro, understandably, picked up the story yesterday and ran an article on it with the headline — ‘Pasuwa’s Job Safe.’
Now, if the DeMbare chairman has to address questions, and give guarantees about the security or otherwise, of Callisto Pasuwa’s job, simply because his team has lost a league match in Hwange, even against a background that they still lead the championship race by a point, it says a lot about how much we are not a true football nation.
If the chairman of the country’s biggest football club has to field questions, and give assurances that his coach’s job is safe, simply because they have just lost a third match of their 22 league matches this season, it really tells me, after what I saw in the Bundesliga, that we are so far away from the real world of football.
If the boss of the record winners of the league champions in this country has to field questions, and give guarantees that his coach’s job is safe, simply because he has lost, for the first time since taking over as the gaffer in 2011, in a league match against Hwange, then it tells me that we are in a different ball world compared to others who have touched the heavens.
If the boss of the country’s most successful football club has to deal with questions, and give public assurances that his coach’s job is safe, simply because the gaffer lost against an opponent that barely travelled, all week, when his boys had just covered 1 847kms of an exhaustive trip, inside four days, that had taken them to and from Chiredzi and then to Hwange, then it shows we are divorced from the real world of football.
For goodness sake, this was just the fifth game that Pasuwa has lost since taking over as Dynamos coach, in 17 league matches outside the capital spread over two years, and while his record away from his fortress in Harare needs an improvement, isn’t it foolish to suddenly forget that in 2011 he won the championship after winning that massive away game, where even a draw wouldn’t have helped, against FC Platinum at Mandava?
But it’s not just the circus where you find a coach, who has won the League and Cup double back-to-back and is also leading the championship race in the final stretch of the marathon, being the subject of questions about whether his job is safe or not simply because he lost a league match against Hwange, which is worrying.
CAPS United coach, Taurai Mangwiro, who has performed a miracle just to make his team compete for the championship, against a background of all the challenges they have been facing, exploded in sharp comments published yesterday in which he tore his club’s leadership to pieces.
Mangwiro spoke about the difficulties of motivating “players on empty stomachs,” about his players going “for three months without getting a cent,” and about club owner Twine Phiri choosing the wrong people to run the club.
Then you have black cats invading the field, bottles of urine being tossed everywhere and the double header at Barbourfields raising about US$10 000 from gate receipts and the four clubs sharing just US$400 after everything had been gobbled by expenses
Ours, I can tell you, is a different ball world.
Oh, Yes, The Gunners Are Firing On All Cylinders
I love Kwayedza, their big stories on their front page this week were — “Small House Yakarikitwa Iri Musvo,” and “Nyachide Akafukunura Guva Ramambo”, and the other big story screams — “Zvebonde Bodo, Ndine Chivanhu.”
But it’s their foreign sports stories that I really love reading and one of them, “Wenger Orumbidza Ozil neArsenal”, in which the Arsenal boss was reviewing his side’s impressive 2-0 win over Napoli in the Champions League this week, caught my eye.
“Chikamu chekutanga change chichiyevedza kuona,” akadaro Wenger. “Zvose zvange zvichidadisa, zvikiri zvange zvichitambwa pamwe nekunwiswa kwazoitwa.
“Ndaimufarira (Ozil) paaitambira Madrid, ndakaona kuti aitamba zvikuru ariko. Tine raki kuti takamutenga.
“Anofarira kutamba nhabvu uye anofarira kutamba navamwe, apinda mugiya chairo nekuchimbidza.”
Wow!
New English Word In The Oxford Dictionary
There has been a new addition to the Oxford English Dictionary this week, the trust that makes the compilation announced in London this week: OZIL, pronounced O-u-zil (verb) — to help, assist somebody to do something, usually used in football or soccer, as the Americans prefer to call this game. Examples of word use — “Suarez will ozil (assist) Liverpool to become a competitive team that can compete for a Champions League place.” Example Two — “Someone should ozil (assist) Man United to get a decent coach.”
To God Be The Glory!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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