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For Peter, at the age of 30, his brother Adam, at the age of 33, Agent, at the age of 29, and Wilfred Mugeyi, at the age of 34 the oldest member of the team, this was a delayed dance with the aristocrats, which they had chased in the ‘90s, with an entire nation cheering their cause, back in the heady days when the Dream Team took us on a journey to Wonderland, with very little luck to accompany their grand efforts.
JUST in case you might have forgotten, this is momentous month in the history of Zimbabwe football — in exactly three weeks time we will mark 10 years to the day the Warriors played their historic first game at the Nations Cup finals.
The Tunisian city of S’fax provided the setting as the Warriors finally came of age, consigning more than two decades, in which a nation’s soul had been battered by the heartbreak of a barren search for a ticket to a place at the top table of African football, into the history books.
Until now, all that we had done was watch the other teams dine at Africa’s biggest football festival, our heroic attempts to join them repeatedly being crushed, usually in cruel fashion, at the final hurdle just when we could start to see the Promised Land.
Every football fan carried his tortured soul and, hidden away from public view, was the emotional wreckage that the trail of repeated failures had left behind, a people tormented by a game they loved with all their hearts and betrayed by a cruel hand of fate that seemingly always favoured the opponent.
At the turn of the ‘90s they had watched in horror as ‘keeper John Sibanda froze on the big occasion, betraying all the trust that his coaches Ben Kouffie and Armando Ferreira had surprisingly shown in him ahead of Peter Fanwell, and was the fall guy in a 2-2 draw against Congo Brazzaville that ended the Warriors’ ’92 Nations Cup dreams on home soil.
Two years later, there was another 60 000 at the National Sports Stadium, with the Dream Team needing just a win against a grieving Zambia to go to the ’94 Nations Cup finals, but Kalusha Bwalya scored very late, after the defence switched off in a key moment, and the draw was enough to take Chipolopolo to Tunisia.
But all that seemed to have happened in another world, long forgotten, as the Warriors took their place at the Nations Cup finals on that unforgettable January day in 2004 before 22 000 fans, including scores who had been flown from Zimbabwe by the Government, for a gripping contest against the Pharaohs.
For good measure we even took the lead, King Peter pushing us ahead in the 46th minute, but the Egyptians hit back with Abdel Hamid and Mohamed Barakat before, of course, Wilfred Mugeyi found himself with an open goal, in the very last minute, but after superbly taking the ball on his chest, volleyed hopelessly high and wide.
That moment remains frozen in the memory of thousands, if not millions, of the Warriors’ fans and Mugeyi, sadly, became the subject of some sick jokes, in the school play grounds, and every boy who missed a sitter suddenly found himself being nicknamed Silver Fox.
Mugeyi became a new name in street language: Mugeyi (verb) — to miss an open goal in a football game either in professional or social matches; Mugeyi (verb), usage — he found himself in front of goal but, to the amazement of just about everyone Mugeyi volleyed his effort high and wide.
But, given that it was our first appearance at the Nations Cup finals, I have resisted the lure of concentrating on the negatives and, unlike others who have found romance in cartooning Mugeyi, for his miss, I have embraced him as a hero simply because he played at the big stage for his country.
In this game I have seen horrible misses, far worse than what Mugeyi produced that day, and to crystalise this great forward’s career to just that one moment, and give an impression that he was a failure when he was, in fact, a huge success in this game, would not only be unfortunate but certainly foolish if not barbaric.
For me what matters from that Class of 2004 is that they dined with the very best, like true Warriors, were unfortunate to lose to Egypt, bravely fought, in a losing cause, against an Indomitable Lions of Cameroon who were the best team on the continent, even scoring three goals against the West Africans, and were full value for their win over Algeria.
What matters is that they were the best performing side, of the teams either making their debut at that Nations Cup or making a comeback after having missed the last one, and in King Peter Ndlovu they had one of star individuals of the group stages with his three goals in three games.
If you want to see how special Peter was then you just need to consider that, on three goals, he finished just one goal short of the Golden Boot winner despite the fact that he played half the number of matches that Youssouf Hadji of Morocco featured in, with the Atlas Lions going all the way to the final.
For Peter, at the age of 30, his brother Adam, at the age of 33, Agent, at the age of 29, and Wilfred Mugeyi, at the age of 34 the oldest member of the team, this was a delayed dance with the aristocrats, which they had chased in the ‘90s, with an entire nation cheering their cause, back in the heady days when the Dream Team took us on a journey to Wonderland, with very little luck to accompany their grand efforts.
Mugeyi is my age and so, even as I covered those boys on that tour of duty, I was conscious of the fact that I was young enough to play for that team and, after the trauma we had all suffered together, in the jungles and trenches of this game when Reinhard Fabisch was our guide back in the ‘90s, it felt good to see these boys finally dancing with the very best.
Ten years after they scaled Mt Everest, defying Ben Kouffie’s foolish, if not somewhat wayward prediction, unleashed in his moment of divorce with our football after his doomed mission to take us the ’92 Nations Cup, that even if we hired a coach from the moon we would never scale those heights, those Warriors of 2004 remain my Superbrand Team.
Energy Murambadoro, Dumisani Mpofu, Esrom Nyandoro, Bekhi Ndlovu, Dazzy Kapenya, Kaitano Tembo, Leo Kurauzvione, Lazarus Muhoni, Agent Sawu, Wilfred Mugeyi, Charles Yohane, Peter and Adam Ndlovu, George Mbwando, Ronald Sibanda, Tapiwa Kapini, Harlington Shereni, Alois Bunjira, Ephraim Mazarura, Tinashe Nengomasha, Joel Luphahla and Dickson Choto will always have a special place in my heart.
It’s 10 years since you made that giant leap of faith into the light and while our hope was that we will remain there forever, it’s sad that we have let you down along the way and only managed one more appearance at the Nations Cup after that but, once again, thank you gentlemen for the memories and for flying our national flag so high.
Ten Years After Tunisia
Adam Ndlovu, scorer of one of the two goals in our win over Algeria in our final game in Tunisia, is the only one of the Class of 2004 who didn’t live long enough to see the 10th anniversary of the year when they did what no other group of Warriors had done before — playing at the Nations Cup finals.
As was the case in Tunisia, when he led the line with his brother Peter, the two were together when Adam met his cruel death, in an accident in Victoria Falls, in December 2012, with the Flying Elephant somehow escaping with his life from a horror crash.
Adam might be gone now but he will never be forgotten, certainly not because of what he did in Tunisia 10 years ago, but because over the course of his career he was a dedicated and exemplary football ambassador for his country during a career in which he excelled and became a role model.
Somewhere in heaven, our good Adam, aptly given the special name that God gave to the first human being who lived in the paradise of Eden, finds himself in the good company of his Dream Team coach, Reinhard Fabisch, who finally lost his battle with cancer in July 2008, and Benjamin Nkonjera, the family friend who was a Dream Team icon.
There were 10 home-based Warriors in Tunisia in 2004, including Sawu who was having his very successful homecoming spell at Dynamos, and Ronald Sibanda, widely regarded as one of the finest midfield talents to emerge on our domestic scene, but who could probably have gone places if he had matched his skills with his discipline and focus.
This month, a group of home-based Warriors are on a tour of duty in South Africa for the CHAN finals and the Chidzambwa influence in that team can be seen in its coaching staff, with Ian Gorowa and Callisto Pasuwa the main men, while a DeMbare defender, Partson Jaure, will captain the team.
It’s not going to be a stroll in the park for these Warriors in South Africa but if you qualify for the finals of any major tournament you should not expect any easy games and the fact that Morocco have named a team with seven players, who helped Raja Casablanca reach the final of the Fifa Club World Cup last month, puts that tough mission into context.
Gorowa’s case hasn’t been helped by wayward agents, who have suddenly started to believe that every January should be a month for them to pocket thousands of money selling the best football talent that we have to South African clubs, who have unsettled his players with their phone calls and wild promises to the boys in camp.
Suddenly, we have an agent who tells his player that this is a grand opportunity for him to market himself, right in the El Dorado of Super Diski, and what is important is his performance and the success of the team, as and when it comes, will be secondary as long as he can show his class to an audience that can splash thousands for his signature.
Hold on to the ball as long as possible, appears to be the filthy message coming from these managers, dribble as many people as you can, try to be selfish and score as many goals as you can, don’t pass responsibility to the others because this is all about you, your career, your future and not about the team.
What a mess!
That’s the price we pay for having a poor top-flight league that has been turned into a nursery for the Super Diski clubs and the irony of this tournament is that while our players in South Africa cannot play for Gorowa’s men, Gordon Igesund can call on their teammates, including Itumeleng Khune, who is the captain of Bafana Bafana.
We have a scenario where the majority of our best foreign-based players are in South Africa and they play, virtually, at the same level as those South Africans, who are based at home like Khune, Bernard Parker and Siphiwe Tshabalala, who are able to make the Bafana Bafana team.
But while our players are not eligible to play for the Warriors in this tournament, their South African teammates can play for Bafana Bafana and, based on that, one can say that Bafana Bafana have a stronger team and are in a better position to do well in this CHAN tournament when compared to us.
However, the beauty about football lies in its unpredictability and the outstanding player in the Super Eagles team when they won the Nations Cup in South Africa last year wasn’t one of their big-star names based in Europe but a home-based goal-scoring midfielder called Sunday Mba, who capped it all by scoring the priceless goal in the final.
The last two meetings between clubs from this country and those from South Africa, in the Caf inter-club tournaments, have resulted in victories for the locals with CAPS United and Monomotapa, who were relegated from the top-flight last season, emerging victorious against Moroka Swallows and Ajax Cape Town.
History has a funny way of repeating itself.
We Live In Different Worlds
There has been so much noise in South Africa generated by Kaizer Chiefs over the releasing of their players to the Bafana Bafana team for the CHAN finals.
The Amakhosi feel that they need to retain their players and release them to the CHAN team only after they play their crucial league match against Mamelodi Sundowns on January 23.
By then Bafana Bafana would have played all their group games against Mozambique, Mali and Nigeria and, depending on the results, could be out of the tournament by the time Chiefs decide their players are free to join the CHAN camp. But while Chiefs have the luxury of even suggesting that they want to keep all their players from the CHAN squad, something they can do without getting any sanctions because the tournament doesn’t fall under the Fifa calendar, simply because they value their league match against Sundowns, you have to spare a thought for Dynamos.
If all goes according to plan, we have the possibility of seeing a Chiefs/Dynamos showdown in the Champions League for a ticket into the group stages of the tournament — a titanic clash of the Glamour Boys of Zimbabwe and Glamour Boys of South Africa.
Now, the Glamour Boys of Zimbabwe provide seven players — George Chigova, Oscar Machapa, Augustine Mbara, Themba Ndlovu, Partson Jaure, Tawanda Muparati and Simba Sithole — in the 22-man Warriors CHAN squad that will compete in South Africa.
They also provide their coach Callisto Pasuwa, who is the Gorowa’s assistant in the Warriors’ technical team.
Unlike Chiefs, they have no power to hold on to any of their players and, if the Warriors go all the way to the final, there is a possibility that Pasuwa will only train his Champions League team for just a few days before they plunge into their first match.
That isn’t their biggest problem, too.
In the very likely event that all their players feature in the CHAN games and make a huge impression, the inevitable will follow with the Super Diski clubs coming and buying them and you have that possibility of seven of their best players, who had been registered for this Champions League, being scooped in just one swoop.
Do I hear someone say Sharuko anenge akupenga manje? Where in the world have you seen seven players from one team being bought in just one giant sale?
Just rewind to 2010 fellows — Method Mwanjali, Lionel Mtizwa, Oscar Machapa, Gilbert Mapemba, Tafadzwa Rusike, Nyasha Mushekwi and, for good measure, you can also include Khama Billiat because CAPS United was the last Premiership team he had played for — all going to South Africa.
History has a funny way of repeating itself and, if you check your 2014 calendar, you will see that it’s similar to the one we had in 1997 — 04/04/2014 is a Friday; 06/06/2014 is a Friday; 08/08/2014 is a Friday; 10/10/2014 is a Friday; 12/12/2014 is a Friday.
Back in 1997, we had that large exodus of players to Super Diski — Shutto, Bunjira, Doctor Murewa, you name them, we could have another one after this CHAN finals.
History Has A Way Of Repeating Itself
If you are a Manchester United fan, this will certainly not make comfortable reading but, when you look at the statistics, you will find that there is something big that is at work here.
In the 1987-1988 English season, Liverpool won the championship by NINE POINTS. In the 2010-2011 English Premiership season, Manchester United won the championship by NINE POINTS.
In the 1988-1989 English season, Liverpool were DENIED defence of their title when Michael Thomas scored a LAST-MINUTE goal for Arsenal that gave the Gunners the title. In the 2011/2012 English Premiership season, Manchester United were DENIED defence of their title when Sergio Aguero scored a LAST-MINUTE goal for Manchester City that gave the Citizens the title.
In the 1989-1990 English season, Liverpool reclaimed their title by coasting to an easy triumph, by nine points, and in the 2012-2013 English Premiership season, Manchester United reclaimed their title by coasting to an easy triumph, by 11 points.
In 1990, Kenny Daglish, the highly-successful Scottish manager of Liverpool, resigned and was replaced by another Scottish manager, Graeme Souness and the Reds have NOT won the championship since. In 2013, Alex Ferguson, the highly-successful Scottish manager of Manchester United, retired and was replaced by another Scottish manager, David Moyes, and the Red Devils, on the evidence of what we have seen so far, might go to the Liverpool route.
To God Be The Glory!
Come on United !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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