Online Reporter
Sharuko On Saturday
BY the time you read this blog again on Saturday next week, God willing, the FIFA World Cup, the first to be hosted by more than one country, will be up and running.
Football’s biggest festival will be back in the United States, after an absence of 32 years, and in Mexico, for the first time since Diego Maradona and his Hand of God in ’86.
It’s the first time Canada will be hosting the World Cup.
The Mexicans will become the first people to host the World Cup three times.
They are such a lucky people.
It was at the Azteca, their national stadium, where the greatest national football team ever assembled chose the World Cup final to parade their full repertoire of skills.
That Brazilian side crushed Italy 4-1 in the final, Pele won his third World Cup crown and Jairzinho signed off as the only player to score in every game of the finals.
It was also at the Azteca on June 22, ’86, where Maradona scored the Goal of the Century after waltzing past five England players and then rounding ‘keeper Peter Shilton to score Argentina’s second.
It’s where this year’s World Cup party will start when the Mexicans will host Bafana Bafana at the Azteca on Thursday next week.
It’s a replay of the opening match of the 2010 World Cup when Siphiwe Tshabalala scored the opening goal of the tournament with a beauty in the 1-1 draw against Mexico at Soccer City.
I was part of the army of journalists inside the huge stadium when Tshabalala scored his screamer and it’s the only time I have stood up to celebrate a Bafana Bafana goal.
Bafana Bafana are our rivals and my instincts, unlike those Dynamos and CAPS United fans trying to forge a marriage of inconvenience, a strange union built by angels of deception, will always tell me that I can’t embrace them. That is the way sport is because once we destroy the walls that divide us, then we are destroying the very powerful spirit that fuels sport to be such a beautiful thing whose foundation is built on rivalries.
Sadly, for Tshabalala, just a few months after he touched heaven that day at Soccer City, tragedy struck when his mother, Rebecca Makhubu, died on December 5, 2010, from head injuries sustained in a fall at a bridal shower.
I call myself a son of the World Cup.
After all, I was born in the very year that Pele and his Brazilians took football to another planet with their dominant and stylish victory in Mexico in 1970, in the process exorcising the ghost of the Maracazano by defeating Uruguay 3-1 on their way to victory.
The Brazil five-man attack of Pele, Gerson, Tostao, Rivellino and Jairzinho was an All-Star frontline, the greatest attacking talent ever assembled in a single team, and by the end of the World Cup, they had scored 19 goals.
Brazil became the first, and only team, to take the World Cup home, for keeps, after winning it for the third time in that Mexican adventure.
WORLD CUP ALWAYS EVOKES DREAM TEAM MEMORIES
The last time the World Cup was held in the United States in ’94, Reinhard Fabisch and his Dream Team came close to qualifying for that tournament only for them to fall at the final hurdle in Cameroon.
The Indomitable Lions cheated us, which they used to do with impunity knowing that their sins will be ignored at CAF since Issa Hayatou was one of them, and stole our ticket to that World Cup.
Watching Reinhard Fabisch throwing US dollar notes at the referee, suggesting that the match officials had been bribed, provided the lasting image of the hearts which were broken by that controversial 1-3 defeat in Yaounde.
Fabisch was banned by Hayatou’s CAF for a year, and his romance with the Dream Team, which came close to taking us to the World Cup for the first time in our history, was over.
Of course, his legacy remains alive and with his son Jonah choosing to play for his motherland, and doing a pretty good job of it, the late German coach’s name remains part of our football conversation – 18 years after his death.
Watching his widow, Chawada, rooting for the Warriors in their Unity Cup games against Nigeria and India at the Valley in London last week, was quite refreshing and another powerful image of the bond which still exists between our football and Fabisch’s name. Today’s generation of Warriors fans keep saying that the Dream Team were a bunch of failures because they didn’t even qualify for the AFCON finals and failed the big test to qualify for the World Cup.
While I respect their views, I disagree with them because I argue that it’s unfair to compare today’s AFCON, where 24 teams take part, to the early ‘90s AFCON, where there were just 11 qualifying slots to fight for.
Even with such a small number of slots to fight for, the Dream Team were only denied a place at the ’94 AFCON by a Zambian team which then went all the way to the final of that tournament only to lose to champions Nigeria.
That Chipolopolo side scrambled a draw at the National Sports Stadium, where we needed a win to go through, after Kalusha Bwalya scored a rare header, in the 80th minute, to give them the golden point they needed to qualify.
That Dream Team didn’t lose a match in their six qualifiers, crushed Bafana Bafana 4-1 at the National Sports Stadium, and went to Lusaka and Johannesburg and came out with points after forcing draws.
In the end, Bafana Bafana’s 0-1 defeat to Chipolopolo at Soccer City turned out to be the most decisive result which helped the Zambians qualify for the AFCON finals at the expense of the Warriors.
Of course, that’s all in the past now, but we need to understand, and appreciate, where we are coming from for us to have a proper understanding of where we want to go.
OUR SHOCKING WORLD CUP QUALIFYING RUN
The Dream Team finished TOP of our group in the ’94 World Cup qualifiers with 10 points, winning four and drawing two of our six group games.
We beat Egypt here 2-1, Peter Ndlovu and Agent Sawu with the goals, and drew against them in France in the replay and, in the process, consigned them into second place, two points behind us. By the time the first round of qualifiers ended, we were just one of the remaining NINE teams standing – Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Guinea, Senegal, Zambia, Morocco, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and Algeria.
Agent was the second top-scorer in the qualifiers with six goals, two behind Rashidi Yekini.
Now, take a very close look at us now and you will see the difference:
We have won just ONE World Cup qualifier since Fabisch died on July 12, 2008, which translates to one win in 18 years.
That victory came against Somalia at the National Sports Stadium on September 10, 2019, when we scored twice in the final six minutes of the match, including the goal, which took us into the next round, which came two minutes into added time.
Somalia, who had shocked us 0-1 a few days earlier, appeared to be on their way to the next round of qualifiers as they held us to a 1-1 draw, with five minutes of regulation time left.
Then, Admiral Muskwe scored in the 86th minute to push us 2-1 ahead, but even at that stage, we were still going out on the away goals rule, but Khama Billiat’s goal, two minutes into added time, won us the game and a place in the next round.
Seven years later, we are still to win a World Cup qualifier, even though along the way we have played the likes of Lesotho, including in the qualifying matches for the World Cup, which gets underway next week.
We have played 16 World Cup qualifiers, since our nervy win over Somalia, and we have not won even one – we drew seven matches and lost the other nine games.
Ironically, we drew against the Super Eagles, home and away, and drew against Bafana Bafana, but we lost both matches against Lesotho, without even scoring a goal.
We have not won a World Cup group game qualifier in 18 years – the last one was when we beat Namibia 2-0 at Rufaro on June 8, 2008.
Since the turn of the millennium, we have played 47 World Cup qualifiers, we have won just 11, drawn 15 and lost 21 of those games.
One thing which keeps baffling me is where has all the youthful talent gone in this country?
If the Soccer Stars of the Year selection was done today, Ralph Kawondera would win it hands down – he has already won two Player of the Month awards.
He turns 36 on August 2.
Knowledge Musona and Khama Billiat will be a big part of the conversations during that selection process – the Smiling Assassin turns 36 on June 21, Khamaldinho, also known as Gaucho, turns 36 on August 19.
It’s not their fault that they remain the best players in our league, it’s our system, which is failing somewhere, and the grim results from our World Cup qualifiers tell the whole 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 still in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!
Antoniooooooooooooo!in
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