Robson Sharuko: I’m A Proud Warrior

to speak volumes about the emotional trauma that was crushing the spirits of everyone in the stands.
Only five minutes remained, in regulation time, and the brave Eagles of Mali, having been given a way back into the match through a goal as soft as the cheeks of a newly-born baby, were holding on comfortably for a point that would effectively close the door for us.
The scoreboard doesn’t lie, and it read Zimbabwe 1, Mali 1, and the clock wasn’t lying too and, as true as the fact that this was a winter’s afternoon in the capital, there were only five minutes left in regulation time.
We had tried everything possible, you have to say, and played our best football – as a national team – since Charles Mhlauri and his Class of 2006 defeated the World Cup-bound Black Stars of Ghana 2-1 in Ismailia, Egypt, at the Nations Cup finals.
The impressive Khama Billiat, playing his debut home match for the Warriors after an incredible 12 months in which he had risen from obscurity, stuck in the excellent Aces Youth Academy, to become a star at Ajax Cape Town in Super Diski, had scored a beauty to end a sweeping Zimbabwean move rich in quality.
But, for some strange reason, the near side assistant referee had seen what noone else could see and, in an error of gigantic proportions that was about to come back to haunt us, had mistakenly ruled that Khamaldinho had been in an offside position.
Television replays clearly showed the South African match official had got it all wrong but the decision, for all the tragedy of its wrongness, had to stand and, for all the tragedy of its fatal consequences on our campaign, stand it did.
It was like Guinea revisited, when the West Africans came to Rufaro two years ago, and forced a goalless draw when a headed effort by Gilbert Mushangazhike was somehow disallowed for reasons so strange the rules that were being used by the pathetic referee could only have been borrowed from Mars for use in this one and only game.
Where I could see disbelief, in the eyes of the clueless Valinhos as the cruel decision was passed, I could see confusion in the eyes of Norman Mapeza as he struggled to understand why his team always found itself on the wrong side of decisions by the match officials in this campaign.
They had been given a rough ride by the match officials in Monrovia, where they battled to a 1-1 draw, and were given a worse treatment by referees in Bamako, where they lost 0-1, with complaints to the match commissioner, by the Zimbabweans, bringing the incredible response that they also had a home game against Mali to make full use of.
Now, right in front of their fans, in their backyard, in the stadium that they call home, the Warriors were suffering from another big wrong decision by the match officials and you could see the pain written all over their faces, which told the hidden story of the torture that was going on inside their soul.
But we had recovered from that, Knowledge Musona had scored a beauty to push us into the lead, but we had conceded a soft goal for the equaliser, then saw Vusa Nyoni open fire but was thwarted by the impressive goalkeeper and Khamaldinho opening fire from an angle only to be thwarted by the ‘keeper.
Musona getting to the end of a lovely cross from Vusa and heading powerfully towards goal, from close range, only to be thwarted again by the excellent goalkeeper with a world-class save that would have been saluted by such grand football theatres like the Camp Nou, Anfield or Old Trafford.
Then, when the superb Gilbert Mapemba created space down the right and delivered a peach of a cross that asked Musona to only connect, hitting the target, for the goal that we all were crying for, our emerging Mr Goals could only direct his header away from target and, you felt at that stage, that this was the game gone.
Surely, we couldn’t have asked for more but the pain of failure, even after a gallant effort, is still the same and there is no honour in failing, and the reality was that if we had not won the game on Sunday, we would have failed in our mission.
So here we were, five minutes to go, and still failing in our mission and you could see the door closing on our hopes of making it to the 2012 Nations Cup finals, you could see all the dreams turning into a nightmare, you could see the ugly post-mortem that would follow and how characters were going to be assassinated.
But something stood out for me at that moment.
The fans, I realised, were not leaving the stadium.
Noone was abandoning the Warriors, even when it was clear that time was no longer friendly to our cause, and an estimated 35 000 people inside the old stadium stayed rooted to their seats believing that something would happen.
It was as if we were all bound by our fate that we would win this game, no matter how cruel time was playing games with our chances, and so we waited, and hoped, like those people trapped on the Titanic waiting, and hoping for, help.
“Fifteen hundred people went into the sea when Titanic sank from under us,” the elderly Rose said as she narrated her incredible tale at sea in that mega movie.
“THERE WERE TWENTY BOATS FLOATING NEARBY AND ONLY ONE CAME BACK. ONE! SIX (PEOPLE) WERE SAVED FROM THE WATER, MYSELF INCLUDED. SIX . . . OUT OF FIFTEEN HUNDRED.
“AFTERWARDS, THE SEVEN HUNDRED PEOPLE IN THE BOATS HAD NOTHING TO DO BUT WAIT. WAIT TO DIE, WAIT TO LIVE, WAIT FOR AN ABSOLUTION THAT WOULD NEVER COME.”
She could have been talking about us at Rufaro on Sunday.
The Rufaro crowd has a history of being as unpredictable as the English weather on a summer day and, now and again, we have seen it happening, fans abandoning their team, with five minutes left, as the picture becomes clearer that this could all turn into a doomed mission.
But Sunday was different and, in those dying minutes, the fans found their reason to believe and stayed inside the arena to try and push their team one last time, in an attempt to push it over the line, and you could feel the pregnant air of expectation.
Then, with time up on the clock, it happened and – just like Agent Sawu heading home a last-gasp goal to help the Dream Team beat Cameroon 1-0 at the National Sports Stadium – Musona was there to convert that penalty and give us a win that our performance deserved and which this special group of supporters deserved.
Sometimes, good guys can also come first.

A Breath Of Fresh Air

On the surface, this was just a victory, a narrow one in that case, a controversial one to some people, a cruel one to the negative Malians, a heartbreaking one to their skipper Mohamed Diarra who, at his peak was good enough to play for Real Madrid, and a tough one for the people of Mali who gave us a legendary football star called Salif Keita.
On the surface, this was just about three points added to the Zimbabwe tally, none to the Malians, a point still separating the two teams, a point still keeping Cape Verde in the lead and two points between Cape Verde and the Warriors and although Liberia were down, they were not out.
But the point is that there was more.
More, in the sense that the win helped strengthen the bond that exists between the Warriors and their fans, a relationship that had been tested to the limit by a poor run in the qualifiers that had seen the team take only two points out of nine in their first three matches.
More, in the sense that it helped breathe belief into the hearts of the Warriors’ fans after the doubts and heartbreak that followed the lifeless show at home, in the previous game, against Cape Verde that allowed the Atlantic Ocean islanders to steal a point from the National Sports Stadium.
More, in the sense that it proved that once we are united, for a certain cause, we have both the technical and playing resources to win against even the giants on the continent and that we dropped points against Cape Verde was largely because of the turmoil that was engulfing our divided house.
More, in the sense that it helped bury the myth that a team, stalked by the ghost of Asiagate, didn’t have the heart to win games for its country and its people and, in those 90 minutes, players like Method Mwanjali and Nyasha Mushekwi fought, and won, bigger battles related to their profiles as players who could be trusted.
More, in the sense that it was achieved against a background of exciting and penetrative attacking football, where the Warriors danced to the rhythm of an orchestra where the magical Ovidy Karuru was the conductor, and – given the chances that we carved out – noone would have been fooled by a 3-1 or 4-1 win on Sunday.
More, in the sense that Norman Mapeza, the young coach of the team, finally built a foundation from where he can plot the remainder of the campaign, knowing that he now has the full backing of the country, after doubts had started to emerge following the poor run in the first three games.
More, in the sense that the game showcased to its nation the fresh talent that is at its disposal and that, far away from the headline grabbing players like Knowledge Musona who dominate the media coverage of Zimbabwean footballers, there were some genuine stars who could even play at a level better than the Smiling Assassin.
More, in the sense that we embraced Khama Billiat, or as his fans call him Khamaldinho, and in that little frame we found a timely reminder of a diminutive genius that used to lead our line in the ’90s and at the turn of the millennium, known as the Flying Elephant, and – in 90 minutes on Sunday – we welcomed the future.
More, in the sense that we finally came face-to-face with the reality that Karuru has benefited immensely from his spell in Europe and, as he dazzled the Malians with his trickery gliding from the wings and cutting inside to create the opening goal and then the winning penalty, he made us believe that tomorrow could be a better day.
More, in the sense that suddenly there was a buzz, after suffering all these years waiting for the next Ronald Sibanda, that Karuru could possibly be moved into a central midfield attacking role and become the playmaker who would be the creative hub of the Warriors as they journey into the future.
More, in the sense that in Willard Katsande’s cameo role we ended up feeling that, given more time, we could only imagine the possibilities for him in a playmaking role for the team.
More, in the sense that we found out the real value of our unity – from the Zifa board, the Warriors technical team and their players, the media, the sponsors and the all-important fans – and in 90 minutes of a united mission, we managed to destroy the ghost created by 270 minutes of negativity.
Yes, whichever way you look at it, this was certainly a breath of fresh air.

Cuthbert Dube Showing His Stripes

It has taken him one year, with his ship sailing in stormy waters, for Cuthbert Dube to finally impose himself as the leader of the country’s football family and, crucially, as a man who deserves to be trusted that he can turn the fortunes of the game around.
When he came into the picture in March last year, he enjoyed incredible goodwill from a lot of sectors, including the mainstream media, because his credentials as a successful business leader provided hope that he could be trusted not only to run Zifa but do it with a touch of success.
He won what had appeared to be a tight battle, for the Zifa presidency, easily by more than 90 percent of the vote, and those who voted for him were seduced by his gospel that he could do to Zifa, in terms of turning around the organisation, what he had already done with the Premier Service Medical Aid Society that he leads.
So when he said that he had been there in the same trenches of a bankrupt organisation crying out for a hand that would deliver it into the light, and he had done that successfully, the electorate listened and gave him the benefit of doubt.
But it was a difficult first year for Cuthbert Dube as he found out that he had under-estimated the debt trap that Zifa were in and, before he had settled into his job, his national team coach Sunday Chidzambwa was leaving because he was fed up for continuously working for an organisation that did not pay him.
Such was the speed of the events that Dube never got a chance to sit down and discuss with Chidzambwa, the options that could be put on the table, in the new environment, to try and dissolve that debt and create the right conditions for the national team coach to work for a better Warrior brand.
Then there was all that controversy related to the coming of the Brazilians to this country for a high-profile friendly international, the ghost of Valinhos who wanted his payment for a job that he messed, the controversy surrounding the appointment of Tom Saintfiet as national coach, the fallout from the decision by the Department of Immigration not to give him a work permit and the litigation that followed at Fifa.
Amid all this mess came Asiagate and all its implications, the innuendoes, the investigations and how it took most of the focus from a Zifa president, trying to find his feet in the organisation, and at the same time dealing with sensitive issues that probably needed a lifetime to sort out.
In just three or so months, he had lost his national coach, who was also owed a fortune by the technically bankrupt Zifa, the association’s chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya had also been forced out under a plethora of charges and, in that atmosphere of chaos, noone knew what tomorrow would bring.
Add to that his personal challenges where he needed surgery on his leg, and a lengthy time in rehabilitation, and all the innuendoes that came from his publicised visit to Nigerian preacher TB Joshua for a spiritual helping hand.
Given all the negativity, it wasn’t surprising that the sponsors stayed away, preferring to pump their money into cricket and golf, while the country’s national sporting discipline moved around with a begging bowl all the time.
For a Zifa president who came in promising that he would bring the corporate partnership, thanks to his links with many companies and the trust they have in him to deliver on his promise, Dube found himself isolated from his usual friends because he had bonded with a game no company wanted to deal with.
But he couldn’t just watch, from a distance, when he had taken control because all the blame would be heaped on him and so he was forced to do unorthodox means, including funding the association from his pockets, paying the Zifa employees from his private business concerns and footing the Warriors’ bills from his private savings.
When push came to shove, Dube even put his house’s title deeds, as security to the bank, to enable them to get a loan that was badly needed for the Warriors to fly to Mali and fulfill a 2012 Nations Cup qualifier.
But, given that success is what is public, results are what matters, goals are what is discussed in the bars and the churches, noone talked about Dube’s grand sacrifice because the Warriors – the face of the association – was not only losing matches, but was also trapped in an Asiagate scandal that was hammering into the team’s profile.
To some Dube was a failure already because he had not brought the sponsorship that he promised in his manifesto and that he was using his personal funds to finance the association was a product of his failed bid to woo companies on board and he was simply paying a price for his shortcomings.
Cuthbert Dube is a very private man.
Now and again, on the occasions when the insults had really hurt him, he would call and talk about it, certainly not for publicity purposes, but to just to try and bring out some of the frustration that was building up inside his soul.
But I understood him and, rather than join the bandwagon of the critics, I chose to give him the benefit of doubt because I believed that he was still the same man who had won my trust to deliver the national game to another level.
Because I understood the severity of the challenges that he had faced, and appreciated the reality that if the association was being led by someone else we could have had a situation where the Warriors had failed to fulfill an international assignment, I didn’t let Cuthbert Dube walk alone.
I chose to give him a helping hand, at a time when he needed someone who could understand his vision, who could appreciate the nature of the challenges that he was facing, who could afford him a chance for his voice to be heard, and while it wasn’t easy, it was worth it and, refreshingly, the environment is changing.
Finally, slowly but surely, Cuthbert Dube is stamping his authority and, while these are early days, you can certainly feel his big hand in the rapidly changing football environment and it’s now very clear the national game is taking little steps forward rather than big steps backwards.
Mavis Gumbo has been credited for the revolution that has happened in the Mighty Warriors, turning the franchise from a dormant one into a lively asset that now attracts a full house at Rufaro even though they are coming in for free, but Cuthbert Dube has been the unsung hero of that giant leap forward.
Working in tandem with Gumbo, they put a value to women’s football, at a time when that side of our game was dying, and they have been rewarded with qualification for the All-Africa Games and the revival of the national women’s soccer league.
Crucially, Dube invested his trust in Mapeza to lead the Warriors and, while there were a number of voices that questioned him, he stuck to his man, through storms and hurricanes, and even when he was dubbed a dictator, he felt it was a tag, as bad as it sounded, which was worth carrying for the sake of the future.
His principles told him that Mapeza could be counted on to become a good coach for the Warriors and, while he might not have had the necessary qualifications, he could be panel-beaten, in-house, and with time, he could be sent to Europe and South America to get the papers.
When he needed to make a big statement, after the debacle of Cape Verde and with the heartbreak of Chan still being felt, he decided to take the bull by its horns and, when Zifa failed to lure Mhlauri, he turned to Mapeza and hammered home the message that the coach could count on him for support.
Mapeza had certainly gone through a lot, leading to his decision to quit just before Chan, and to convince him that the same system that had frustrated him out of the family could be relied on to offer him conditions good enough to enable him to be a success story, was not an easy task.
Even when the Warriors failed in Mali, Dube stuck by his man and on Sunday he got his due rewards.
It was good to see the Warriors finally looking like a proper national team in that Puma kit, it was good to have a week, leading to such a big game, pass by without the controversy related to bonuses and allowances, it was good to hear the players – for once – saying some nice things about Zifa and, it was good, that – for once – the good guys won.
There is still a lot of work for Zifa to do and Dube is experienced enough to know that one win does not make a summer and it could all turn into a bad story should the Warriors lose against Liberia at home in September.
But, crucially, there is a starting point and it always feels good to see your good work being rewarded and it also provides an inspiration for one to do even better.
We need to seize the initiative and I’m happy that it’s all looking good for Cuthbert Dube, a man who has done a lot in the past year but found out that all his good work was being buried under the weight of the controversy at the association.
The good thing is that, with each passing month, and as the mist begins to clear, it’s also becoming increasingly clear that football has a good leader.

Glory, Glory, Glory, Glory Warriors

Yes, the conservatives are right that this is only one game and, crucially, the Warriors’ fate is not in their hands because all that Mali need to do is win their last two matches and grab leadership of the group and the automatic ticket to the finals.
They are right that there is no need to go overboard, in the post match celebrations, after just winning one out of four group matches.
They are right to say that we got a little bit of luck, in terms of how the match officials spotted the offence by the Mali goalkeeper because, in the heat of the moments, such errors usually go unpunished.
But it’s also true that if we win our next two matches we have a big chance of winning the group and, before we beat Mali, we couldn’t say that with certainty.
There is no guarantee that Mali will win their next home game against Cape Verde and, even if they win, there is no guarantee that they will win their last game away to Liberia, given the chaos that rocked the reverse fixture in Bamako where the Liberians claim they were robbed in a 1-2 loss.
As the Liberians showed in beating a Cape Verde side, which hit them 4-2 on the Atlantic Ocean island, 1-0 in Monrovia on Sunday, it’s a different ball game when it comes to matches being played in their backyard.
What has brought out the life is that we found ourselves at the crossroads, knowing that a draw or loss would end our interest, and – pushed into that corner – we fought like brave and proud Warriors and were rewarded, in dramatic fashion, for our adventure.
On Sunday the Warriors could have collapsed, under all that pressure, and it could have been goodbye, Game Over!
They could have fought gallantly, like they did, and came out with a draw but it would not have been good enough and it would still have been goodbye and Game Over for us.
But to their credit they fought, until the very last minute, and when fans see that a team is giving all that it has got, they can even stand up and cheer them, sometimes in a lost cause, because they would have been impressed by the way they represented them.
It’s all about honour.
Karuru caught the eye, dwarfing everyone who was on the field with a performance as good as the best that we have seen from someone wearing the national jersey in the past 30 years, and he left the fans asking for more.
One supporter even sent me a text saying that, after a year in which we have been bombarding fans with an impression that Musona is the best thing to happen to our football since Peter Ndlovu, on Sunday he felt Karuru was on another level.
You have to give him the benefit of doubt.
What is good is that both Musona and Karuru play for our national team and it’s great to have such comparisons, where it’s all based on quality, and the great thing about it all is that they combined effectively to give us a win.
Noone will be mad to dispute that Karuru was the man-of-the-match but football is a funny game and is not played at same tempo, week in and week out, and there will be good days for Musona, better days for Mushekwi and excellent days for Billiat.
Where I give credit to Musona is that, when it came to the crunch, he was there to provide the cutting edge.
Now, in this game, that’s all that matters.
We might have played as brilliantly as Barcelona that day or as stylish as DeMbare against MC Alger at Rufaro in that Champions League first leg tie, but without the cutting edge, those goals from Musona, it would have been a grim story.
Without those goals, noone would have been saying that Karuru was brilliant that day because brilliance is usually discussed, for so long and for so loud, in good times when it aids a successful cause.
For having the presence of mind to drift into space, and in the process lose his marker, as Karuru cut inside from the right and bathed in all those pools of space, Musona deserves a lot of credit.
For the right touch, to receive the pass, which helped him to steal a yard on the defence, and the instinct to go directly at goal and still have the technique, under all that pressure, to clip the ball over the goalkeeper, Musona deserves credit.
FOR HAVING THE COURAGE TO TAKE THE MOST IMPORTANT PENALTY AT RUFARO, IN THE HISTORY OF THE WARRIORS, AND THE SPOT-KICK LOADED WITH THE GREATEST OF IMAGINABLE PRESSURE, IN THAT LAST MINUTE, MUSONA DESERVES CREDIT.
Method Mwanjali, the captain of the team and a very good penalty specialist, was looking the other way, in his own half, as the drama unfolded.
That spoke volumes about the significance of the moment and how it was not easy to deal with the pressure.
But Musona chose to do it, as young as he is, and – even after his initial effort had been saved through the use of illegal means – he was still brave to try it and that, in the end he did it, you have to salute him.
Thank You, Knowledge.
We have an exciting team but there is still a lot of work to be done and, while Tapiwa Kapini did very well in goals and was inspirational to the cause throughout, the central defence was not as solid as we wanted and they didn’t complement each other well with Thomas Sweswe a shade too slow after a very long and demanding season at Kaizer Chiefs.
That goal we conceded was a joke and the blame lies on the central defensive pairing that did not complement each other well.
Tinashe Nengomasha surprised me with his strong performance and where he gets all that energy, as he moves into the twilight of his career, noone really knows but Father had a colossal performance for his nation.
Questions remain over Justice Majabvi but I forgive him because he is a defensive midfielder being pushed into attacking roles and it’s not an easy transformation, especially in the pressure-cooker of Rufaro, and to suggest that he should be dropped would be an insult.
He should fight for his jersey, but as a defensive midfielder, and not an attacking one, because we will have to give players like Willard Katsande their wings and we will have to give Karuru more freedom in the central zones where he can inflict serious damage.
Soon Onismor Bhasera will be back, quite a good addition, even though Vusa Nyoni was outstanding on Sunday in his role and Mapeza will also get a chance to work again with Archford Gutu who, crucially, plays in that problematic playmaker role.
It all looks good, doesn’t it?

Mapeza Is Live On SuperSport

It’s incredible what a win can do for a nation and a coach and on Thursday night Mapeza was live in the studios on Soccer Africa, with Thomas Mlambo, Kwenaite and Idah and what a show that was.
We have all been crying, in the past, about how SuperSport seemingly ignores our football and, for a change, they had the national coach and it felt good to hear positive things about Zimbabwean football being beamed to the world.
At least, for once, you can hear me say Thank You, SuperSport.
One of the issues discussed by the panelists was how Zimbabwe continues to produce a steady stream of talented footballers like Musona, Billiat and Simba Sithole.
It’s been a good week, ladies and gentlemen, tainted only of course, by that unfortunate statement by Fifa development officer Ashford Mamelodi, on Match Day, saying he would support a ban on Zimbabwean players caught on the wrong side of Asiagate.
Certainly he is right because that is what the football rules say and where there is conclusive proof that the players acted dishonestly, sanctions have to be applied.
What I found strange about Mamelodi’s statement was that he, somehow, didn’t seem interested in saying the same thing about the Botswana players, where he comes from, who were part of a Zebras team that played some questionable games in China, which ended costing the country’s FA CEO his job on the basis that the games were fixed.
It’s all good for Mamelodi, it seems, for the Zimbabwean players to be banned but the special Botswana players, caught in a similar predicament, are free – in his judgment – to continue playing for their clubs and country.
After all, they have taken the Zebras to the 2012 Nations Cup finals and, having turned into heroes in their country for being the first generation to achieve that feat, maybe it’s hard for the Fifa development officer to rock the boat in his own backyard.
Come on Ashford, the Batswana fellows are not a special breed than the Warriors and, if football is guided by the same rules, then they should be applied accordingly.
Waiona!
MaWarriors musarova Big Mali, ndisu tavapinza muno!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Text Feedback – (International – +263772545199; Local – 0772545199)
Email – [email protected]
You can interact with ROBSON SHARUKO on Facebook and Twitter.