adminWarriors have largely lost their way during the same period.
The statistics say it all and this week Fifa released their latest world rankings, which show Spain still ranked the world’s best team, while our dear Warriors slipped 12 places down the table and are now at number 114.
But it’s also true that, in the Spanish meltdown in the Maracana on Sunday night, one could find a common thread between the punishment, meted out to Iker Casillas and his troops, and the events at the National Sports Stadium on June 2, 2010.
The opponent was the same, Brazil, the victorious team was the same, Brazil, and the margin of victory was the same for the five-time World Cup winners – 3-0 against Spain in Rio de Janeiro and 3-0 against Zimbabwe in Harare.
The similarity just doesn’t end there – the half-time scoreline, at the Maracana and at the National Sports Stadium, was the same, 2-0 in favour of Brazil and, just like in Harare three years ago, the second goal came in the 44th minute of the game, with the diminutive Robinho scoring here and the diminutive Neymar scoring in Rio on Sunday.
There was a capacity 60 000 crowd at the National Sports Stadium that day, all rooting for a home team that many felt was hopeless against the five-time world champions, and there was a noisy 73 531 crowd at the Maracana, the majority rooting for a home team many felt was in a hopeless battle against the reigning world champions.
At least, when you come to think about it, we fared marginally better because we held on for 40 minutes, before finally conceding the first goal against Brazil, while the Spaniards were already down 0-1, after just two minutes, in the cauldron of the Maracana on Sunday.
Of course, the stakes and the stages were different, one was an international friendly that bordered on an exhibition match in which the Brazilians were being paid a huge sum of money, for a rare game in Africa, while the other was an explosive high-stakes Fifa Confederations Cup final.
Even the players in the iconic golden shirts of Brazil were different from the ones who had come here and only three – ‘keeper Julio Cesar, wingback Dani Alves and the consistent Thiago Silva – survived, from that party that had played in Harare, to play at the Maracana last Sunday.
The sounds of the Maracana, just like the sounds of the National Sports Stadium that unforgettable day when the Brazilians played in our town, provided a soundtrack to the rhythm that comes out when the people, and their national football team, are united as one powerful weapon, and it’s such magical sounds that made Pele say this is the world’s most beautiful game.
The sights of the Maracana, just like the sights of the National Sports Stadium that unforgettable day when the Brazilians came to our town, provided a colourful and captivating image, which comes out when the people and their national team are united, as one powerful weapon, and it’s such sights magical sights that must have made Pele say this is the world’s most beautiful game.
Watching the Maracana explode, with delirious Brazilians charmed by the way their national team had gallantly fought, against all odds, to make their dreams come true, provided a painful reminder of just about everything that we miss, as Zimbabwean football fans, from a game that means so much to our lives.
For every happy Brazilian face that you saw in the Maracana on Sunday night, there is a very sad Zimbabwean face, which believes so much in his or her national football team, but has seen his or her emotions ravaged, over an extended period of time, by the team’s under-achievement largely fuelled by chaotic administrators plucked from hell.
For every smiling Brazilian fan that you saw in the Maracana on Sunday night, there is a very sad Zimbabwean fan, who believes so much in his or her national football team, but has seen his or her loyalty savaged, over an extended period of time, by the team’s perennial failure largely scripted by hopeless administrators.
For everything good that you saw in the Maracana on Sunday night, as a country in union toasted its return from the wilderness and back into the big time, it represented everything bad that keeps stalking our Warriors, chaining them to an outpost of darkness, from where there has been no journey back into the light.
For everything beautiful that you saw in the Maracana on Sunday night, as a nation at peace with its national football team basked in the glory that comes with success once again after a period of failed missions, it stood for everything ugly about our national game, forever nailed to an outpost of gloom, from where there has been no movement back the light.
This was a Brazilian party, a Brazilian coach, some Brazilian players who had turned themselves into heroes, Brazilian fans delirious that their team, at long last, could not only compete with the very best in the game but, in fact, could also take on mighty Spain and beat them in such convincing fashion and playing with a swagger.
It was like a throwback to 10 years ago when we had a Zimbabwean party, a Zimbabwean coach Sunday Chidzambwa who had just made history, some Zimbabwean footballers who had turned themselves into super heroes by exorcising a ghost that had haunted their national game for decades and Zimbabwean fans delirious that their team, at long last, had qualified for the Nations Cup finals.
It was like a throwback to 2005, after that sensational 3-1 victory over Rwanda secured a second straight Nations Cup appearance for the Warriors and we had a Zimbabwean party, a Zimbabwean coach Charles Mhlauri who had just followed Mhofu’s footsteps, some Zimbabwean footballers who had maintained the standards and Zimbabwean fans ecstatic that their team will compete against the best once again.
Sadly, it’s all gone now, and that’s what hurts, and all we can do is watch such beautiful sights and sounds, which only a game like football can generate, which only a successful national team can evoke in a country, and we can only see it on television, from distant places like Brazil and from famous theatres like the Maracana, as if we don’t have our own team.
Spare A Thought For The Fans
In his moment of triumph on Sunday, Brazilian coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, didn’t abuse his hour of success by turning his guns on those journalists who had questioned his appointment, those players who had criticised his decision to leave them out and those fans who had loudly booed him, in the same stadium, in that recent friendly against England.
He didn’t thank his players, including the genius called Neymar whose explosive performances during the two weeks raised the bar, wearing the iconic Number 10 of Pele, and was key to his country’s success story, because in the world that he lives in, Scolari knows that it’s precisely what these guys, as professionals, are expected to do – nothing less, nothing more.
He didn’t thank the Brazilian Football Federation for turning to him because, in the world that Scolari lives in where he has already won a World Cup for his country, he knows that the leadership is appointed to make such wise decisions and appointments, on behalf of the people, for both the short-term and long-term interests of the game.
He didn’t thank Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, for bringing the Confederations Cup and the World Cup to Brazil, after a 63-year absence, which gives his team a head-start, in both competitions, given Brazil have never lost a competitive game at home since 1975, about 40 years now, and have never lost a competitive game at the Maracana since 1950.
Instead, Scolari, with all the wisdom that comes with his 65 years, and the 30 years he has spent coaching football, remembered the people who mattered the most, even though some of them had humiliated him, and his special thanks went to the fans of Brazilian football and the Brazil national football team.
“The supporters created a spectacular atmosphere,” Scolari observed. “What they did for us inside the stadium was fantastic, marvellous.”
Fifa president Sepp Blatter addressed the world media, the morning after Sunday’s match, and said something very remarkable that, in his 76 years on this globe and decades in the game, he had never seen anything like the sights and sounds that he heard inside the Maracana.
“What we witnessed yesterday was something that I have never witnessed. The Maracana has something very exceptional,” said Blatter. “First of all you needed the actors, the teams. The world champions on one side and the aspiring world champions – and five-time world champions – on the other side. And then you needed the fans. The fans were extraordinary in the stadium yesterday. I can still feel (the atmosphere) in the stadium today.”
As Blatter said those words, he threw me back to June 5, 2011, as a capacity crowd roared and partied at Rufaro, after Knowledge Musona’s double had secured a dramatic 2-1 win over Mali, and Norman Mapeza went around the stadium on a lap of honour and Zimbabwean fans celebrated long, and hard, in the packed stands.
The fans are the most important part of football, when the game loses its touch to deliver value to its supporters, especially when it comes to the national teams, it loses its significance, it loses its soul, it loses its relevance, it becomes a shell, with no substance, and it’s then clouded by negativity and stalked by controversy.
We might not have players who can play football at the highest level and be compared to the best in the world, but when it comes to fans, we have some of the best supporters who can compare favourably with those who turned the Maracana into a theatre of dreams and a cathedral of sights and sounds so beautiful, so moving, they made grown men cry.
Sadly, our fans do not get the service that their loyalty deserves, the results that their patriotism deserves, the success that their commitment to the game and their national team deserves and the glory that their incredible passion for their beloved Warriors deserves.
While Scolari and his men were doing it for their fans, there is no one to do it for our fans here.
When a chance presented itself for them to cheer their team in the final eliminator for the 2013 Nations Cup finals against Angola at home, someone at Zifa felt they were not important and decided that the cheapest ticket should go for US$10.
Predictably, only about 4 000 were there at Rufaro for that big match, the majority of the fans disenfranchised from the game by the very leadership they tasked with serving their interests, and while we won 3-1, only God knows the damage our Warriors would have inflicted on those Palancas Negras that day, had they been backed by a full house.
When you have the biggest constituency of the game, its fans, in rebellion because someone suddenly decided they were not worth watching one of the biggest home games in the history of the Warriors, someone felt that because Tuku charges US$10 then an average football supporter should pay such an outrageous amount, then even the football gods will turn against you.
As fate might have it, that 3-1 lead proved inadequate and a golden chance, to play at our third Nations Cup finals, was lost.
When the same fans say it, loud and clear, that our best chances of success in the home matches come when we play at Rufaro, which is easily accessible to most of them, and not at the National Sports Stadium, where their noise isn’t heard, and the opposition feels at home, no one listens to them because, in our crazy world, supporters are not important.
When the same fans say it, loud and clear, that they believe Norman Mapeza, rather than Klaus Dieter Pagels or Rahman Gumbo or Madinda Ndlovu, appears to be the one who best serves the interests of their Warriors, and by extension their interests too, someone needs to listen to them because, even though they can’t afford US$10 for the cheapest ticket, they are an ocean of football knowledge.
Scolari, even with a World Cup under his belt, remembered the importance of the fans when he won the Confederations Cup on Sunday and dedicated his latest triumph to them even against a depressing background where thousands of them had abused him at the Maracana in that friendly against England. “We must use this as a starting point inside our country for friendship and unity,” said Scolari. “We need to stay united and believe things can evolve and grow from here.”
Spaniards Humiliated,
What’s Next For Tiki-Taka?
Is the sun finally setting on tiki-taka, after the humiliation of the mighty Spaniards at the Maracana, and if that is the case, where does this all leave our poor imitation of this type of football, as fed on us by Pagels, and where we going as a national team?
It’s true that one horrible result doesn’t suddenly turn a good football formation into a very bad one but to look at the Spaniards’ whipping in the Maracana as an isolated result would be tantamount to living in denial.
Spain should not have been in that final, they were outplayed on all fronts by an Italian team that had leaked four goals against Brazil in a group game, and if they could be harassed so much by the Azzurri, they were certainly likely to be well beaten by the Samba Boys, which is exactly what happened.
But to just fix our attention on Spain and forget that the other believers of tiki-taka, Barcelona, suffered a seven-goal humiliation, in the Champions League this year, would be as foolish as retreating to the North Pole in a vain attempt to escape from the mild winter that hits Zimbabwe.
The world have found a way to play against tiki-taka and, if the specialists are struggling, or are being overwhelmed, what about us who are being taught to try and imitate a passing game that is being introduced at national team level and not at Copa Coca-Cola schools level?
It’s a frightening situation, when you begin to think about it, because the tragedy about it all is that it is being taught by a guy who has never taught the game at this level, before, and in such a scenario there will always be room for bleeps and blunders.
Is it surprising, then, that we are the only country, among those considered to be good at football in Southern Africa, who will go into the final round of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers in September without a chance of going through to the play-off stage?
Of course, the odds are all stacked against them but it’s a fact that Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa all have a chance, of making it to the final round, should they win in September.
You Are Right Mr Zifa President
Cuthbert Dube said on Thursday the Zifa board is a bloated one, too big to serve such a small constituency, and needs to be trimmed and he is very right because, three-and-half years into their term, there are a lot of men who cannot justify why they have been in those leadership positions.
The Zifa boss also launched a scathing attack on the association’s secretariat, ordering chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze to get his house in order or face the stick, and one feels that same message applied to a host of board members who have done virtually nothing in 42 months in office.
You are walking with the game’s fans, Mr President, because they have the same feelings and they also share your beliefs in investing in a local coach, for the national team, and they feel in Mapeza they lost a golden boy on whom they could build their absolute trust.
They support your crusade, Mr President, to have a Zifa that is clean and that has a corporate image and that’s why they have so many questions as to why, against such a background, would a person like Joshua Khumalo, who was convicted after swindling the association and spent time in jail, can bounce back six years after his release to be fast-tracked into the national team as Warriors’ kit manager.
They ask Mr President, was Khumalo fast-tracked back on regional grounds, which provided the immunity to the checks and balances that should have preceded his appointment?
They look at the recent recruitments at the Zifa Office, Mr President, and feel it’s not a coincidence that all of those who now work for the association have names that have a ring to a certain part of this country.
The fans, Mr President, just want to see their Warriors doing as well as the Brazilians you watched in the Maracana on Sunday, they want to sing and dance at Rufaro and Barbourfields, creating the sights and sounds that you saw in the Maracana on Sunday, all for their national team.
It’s not asking for the world, Mr President, and as you saw in the Maracana on Sunday, it can be done if we all work together as one team and one nation.
Joke Of The Week
If you kill someone, it’s homicide. If you kill yourself, it’s suicide. If you haven’t won the English Premiership title for more than 20 years, then you’re from Merseyside.
To God Be The Glory!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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