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Atletico remind me a lot about our CAPS United who aren’t as popular, around the continent, as their city rivals, Dynamos, and have lived in that shadow for ages now.
On Wednesday night, Atletico Madrid won the Europa League Cup, for the second time in three seasons, after a dominant show, inspired by their fiery Colombian forward, Falcao, in an all-Spanish final in Bucharest.

Two years ago, during the 2009/2010 season, the team from the red-and-white side of Madrid also won the same tournament and a number of things, which happened in that season, appear to be unfolding now.
Well, when Atletico won the Europa League in the 2009/2010 season, a team whose primary football shirt colour is blue, Chelsea, won the league championship in England.

Cue in this season, where Atletico have just won the Europa League, and a team whose primary football shirt colour is blue, Manchester City, is set to win the league championship in England.
When Atletico won the Europa League in the 2009/2010 season, Manchester United finished second in the battle for the English Premiership and, it’s virtually certain that the Red Devils will again finish second in the title race this season.

Back then in the 2009/2010 season, when Atletico were Europa League champions, Chelsea won the FA Cup and the ageless Didier Drogba scored in that final.
Cue in this season, where Atletico have just won the Europa League Cup, and Chelsea again are the FA Cup winners and, just like two years ago, Drogba scored in the final.

During the 2009/2010 season, when Atletico took home the Europa League, Arsenal finished third in the English championship race, a position the Gunners are likely to end the campaign in again this season.
When Atletico won the Europa League in the 2009/2010 season, Tottenham Hotspur finished fourth in the English Premiership race, and now that the team from

Madrid has repeated its Europa League winning feat, Spurs are again set to finish the season in fourth place.
Back then, two years ago, when Atletico won the Europa League Cup, the Professional Footballers Association Player of the Year went to a forward whose team didn’t win the league — Wayne Rooney.
Cue in this season, where Atletico have just won the Europa League Cup, the PFA Player of the Year award has once again to a forward whose team didn’t win the league — Robin van Persie.

We live in an interesting era, where even prophets can tell us what will happen in forthcoming big football matches, long before they are played. And, when you look at what happened with Atletico in the 2009/2010 season and their victory in the Europa League, you get it’s something rewriting itself now that they have won the tournament again.

Of course, this isn’t all cast in stone and while there is a huge possibility this will happen, then are no guarantees that everything could emerge as defined as that when the English Premiership draws its curtains for another season tomorrow.
But that’s the beauty of football that it can happen as we believe it was scripted and Manchester City, after a 44-year-wait in which they turned from a major force into a laughing stock at some point, could be back celebrating the honour of being champions.

No game, in this world, gives hope to the lightweights than football, no game in this world has the capacity of producing results to shock the globe like football and no game, in this world, is as unpredictable as football and, while a pattern can emerge, you can never be so sure until the 90 minutes are up.
Dynamos fans would probably have wanted their team featuring somewhere in this Atletico Madrid/Europa Cup equation, something like when Atletico won that tournament two years ago, the Glamour Boys overturned a six-goal first leg deficit, in the Champions League, and booked their place in the group stages of the tournament.

When you are in the depths of despair, where Dynamos find themselves in right now after their comical collapse in Tunis in which they were handed their biggest thrashing in history on the continent, you hold out to anything that provides a glimmer of hope, even when it’s clear the situation is pretty hopeless.
The greatest rule given to football by the sporting gods is that there is no room for surrender, unlike in boxing, were a beaten fighter can throw in the towel, to save himself from further punishment, or the referee can step in and call off the fight.

In football you go the distance, which is good, and as long as there is time, there will be hope, as Manchester United showed in the European Cup in 1999, and as Liverpool showed as they came back from 0-3 down, in the first half, to beat AC Milan for their fifth European crown. If this was a boxing match, the referee would have intervened and there would have been no need for Esperance to even come to Harare for the second leg because the contest would have ended the moment the Tunisians turned it from a football into a tennis score.

But that’s the beauty of football that it has to go the full distance and the second 90 minutes have to be played and, as long as there is time, you get hope and the Dynamos players and their fans have been in bullish mood this week saying that this could be converted into Mission Possible. I don’t think Dynamos can wipe out a six-goal deficit but, in an era where even prophets can tell us results beforehand, where results from the Europa League of two years ago appear to define the pattern of events in English football two years later with Atletico Madrid being the common denominator, it’s risky to go on top of the mountain and say Never Ever!

Taking The Flak On Behalf Of DeMbare
We have taken a lot of flak, as a Sports Desk, in recent weeks from readers who have been using this newspaper’s text feedback column to complain that they are disillusioned by our excessive coverage of Dynamos.

Some have been reasonable while others, expectedly, have been ballistic and, when the Glamour Boys were beaten 0-6, they used it as a weapon to attack us, in their celebrations, as if we were part of the Dynamos technical team, management or supporters’ groups.
One even claimed that DeMbare’s success, on the domestic scene, was owed to a large extent to the protection, and excessive coverage, it gets from The Herald, with the newspaper bullying any team that emerges as a threat to the Glamour Boys and destroying its spirit.

“The Herald is used to further the cause of DeMbare,” commented someone who identified himself/herself as Makepekepe Chete, in this newspaper’s text feedback forum on Wednesday.
“Last year, when CAPS was winning, The Herald fanned hatred between Chunga and the CAPS fans, created lies that Platinum was bribing refs and drawing graphs to encourage DeMbare.

“Any team that offers a threat to DeMbare is harassed in The Herald. Shame on you! Zorwa butter six, kikiki!
“Dynamos had no voice in Tunisia to put pressure on refs and dividing fans and coaches of DeMbare’s opponents to give them the advantage as they do in Zimbabwe. Six bhooo!”

You know, on November 1 this year, The Lord willing, I will mark 20 years on this newspaper, and I have to be frank that, in all those two decades, I never imagined that we were this powerful as an organisation.
So powerful to the extent of creating a football institution that, just two years ago, was ranked the sixth best soccer team on the continent, so powerful to the extent of helping them become the only team from our dear motherland to reach the final of the Champions League. So powerful to help the Glamour Boys deliver 18 league titles, in their history, into their trophy cabinet — winning more championships than the combined tally of their two main rivals, CAPS United and Highlanders.

So powerful to help them remain the football team of choice, for successive generations of Zimbabweans from the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, 90s and well after the turn of the millennium.

So powerful to make them the team of choice, for successive generations of some of Zimbabwe’s finest football stars — from the immortal Mastermind, George Shaya, to the genius called Moses Chunga.
I never imagined we had that power and I don’t think it’s true either that someone will decide that he wants to support Dynamos simply because it gets the most extensive coverage in The Herald.

I certainly don’t believe it’s factual to claim that we intimidate DeMbare’s opponents and neutralise any threat that emerges on the horizon because, if we were good enough to do that, the Glamour Boys wouldn’t have gone for 10 years, from 1997 to 2007, without winning the league title on home soil.
The Dynamos/CAPS United rivalry is deep and we acknowledge that but it’s also true that DeMbare are a bigger franchise, both in terms of size and honours, than their big city rivals.

FC Platinum have emerged from nowhere and their achievements, in just more than a year in the Premiership, have been incredible – losing the championship by goal difference and playing in the Champions League in only their second year in the big league.
But to suggest that we hate FC Platinum, simply because they offer a threat to Dynamos, isn’t true.

Yes, our graphics last year were innovative and could have hurt many people who were not in DeMbare’s corner, but they represented the truth, an illustration, not in words but in graphs, of how the championship race was unfolding.
If FC Platinum players and their coaches were to claim today that the graphics piled on the pressure on them, leading them to lose a home game they simply needed to draw against DeMbare, then it says a lot about their lack of mental strength.

When a team is good enough to win a league championship, and wants to do that badly, a newspaper can’t stand in its way and in the most decisive game of the championship race last year, The Herald didn’t intimidate the referee to give Dynamos a penalty at Mandava, but it was Daniel Veremu who scored the fatal own goal.

Admittedly, our coverage is dominated by Dynamos stories but it’s the nature of that football franchise, the size of that football team, the huge appetite within the market that reads this newspaper to read stories about the Glamour Boys and the high profile nature of their players like Takesure Chinyama, which shapes and influences that coverage.

I have been in the hot seat, shaping the sports coverage of this newspaper for a dozen years, and it’s the longest run by an individual since Independence and there are things you learn along the way.
I have always confided with my closest friends, over a beer or two on Saturday evenings, that the next Sports Editor of this newspaper, who will turn a blind eye to the coverage of DeMbare’s issues, will struggle to last six months in the job.

Time has always been a very good judge.

Mission Impossible Or Mission Possible?
How can a team wipe out a 0-6 deficit in the Champions League when this has never happened in the history of this competition in 48 years and when you are playing the holders of the Cup? Is that possible or the noises we are hearing from the DeMbare camp, from players and officials saying that it can be done, are just a dying whisper from a team already on its Champions League deathbed?

Can a team that last scored seven goals, in the same tournament 13 years ago when they thrashed St Louisienne of Reunion at the National Sports Stadium, suddenly find a way to such a productive past, in goal-scoring, in tomorrow’s showdown against Esperance?
Is it possible that Dynamos, who are yet to win or draw a match against Esperance in half-a-dozen encounters in the Champions League, can suddenly find the life, not only to win their first game against these Tunisians, but also inflict a heavy defeat?
Can a team that has never scored seven goals, on the domestic scene, in God-knows-how-many-years, suddenly wake up as a goal-scoring machine tomorrow and bury Esperance, of all teams, under an avalanche of goals to revive a Mission that looks doomed?

Is it possible that a Dynamos team, without a playmaker to give a productive edge to a midfield that has until now been so ordinary it will struggle against even Mwana Africa, can suddenly find one tomorrow, God-knows-from-where, who can turn into the supply line for the strikers to score six plus goals?
Can a team that will not have its chief striker, with Takesure Chinyama being ruled out of the tie last night because of a swollen left knee, still find the scoring power, in a match where their forward-line will be so lightweight, to destroy Esperance?

Is it possible for a team that had no shot in Tunisia suddenly spring to life in Harare tomorrow and score, not only one goal, but half-a-dozen plus and blow the wind off the Esperance sails?

Crucially, is it possible that a Glamour Boys’ team that conceded six in Tunisia two weeks ago, can suddenly find the cover in defence to stop the Esperance forwards from scoring a goal at Rufaro tomorrow?
Have our boys recovered from that nightmare of a six-goal thrashing, something that has never happened in their lifetime, and in just two weeks time they can turn it around in two weeks?

I personally don’t think it’s possible but I won’t be the one to say that it’s impossible because, having been in this game for so long, I have seen enough to keep a distance from those who say: Never Ever!
It can happen because a 3-0 lead for DeMbare, which looks remote, at half-time changes the whole script, induces panic in the opponents and fuels confidence in the hosts.

If I was a guest on the British television programme, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, show host Chris Tarrant would have asked me a familiar question: Final Answer?

Well, my final answer is that Dynamos will possibly win but, without Chinyama, it will be a mountain to climb.
It’s football guys, let’s enjoy it and if we can’t encourage them, in such circumstances, who else is going to do that?
The last time the Glamour Boys suffered a humiliation close to this magnitude was when they were walloped 1-5 in Nigeria by Shooting Stars exactly 16 years ago. That was 1996!

Then, just like now, a team from Manchester won the English Premiership, Bolton Wanderers and QPR were relegated, and it’s very likely one of them will go again this year, Newcastle were a big factor in the championship race and Liverpool lost in the FC Cup final.
That Class of Glamour Boys turned on the show in the second leg, at the National Sports Stadium, and beat Shooting Stars 3-1 with the heroics of goalkeeper

Abiodun Baruwa, then the Super Eagles’ first choice, standing between DeMbare and a massive win.
There is a lot happening in English football to suggest that this feels like ’96 and all the Glamour Boys need is to believe, just like Tauya Murewa and his team back then, that they will not only win but can do so convincingly.

The Dirty Tricks That Others Play
TP Mazembe players, officials and supporters were yesterday forced to remain in their team hotel on the advise of the Sudanese police who said that it was not safe for the former African champions to venture out of their guarded premises.
The Lubumbashi giants, who carry a 2-0 lead from the first leg, arrived in Sudan on Thursday evening to a violent reception from the supporters of El-Merreikh.
“Please advise your people not to venture into town as they might encounter violent confrontations from local supporters,” said the Sudanese police captain in his message to TP Mazembe’s head of delegation, Frederic Kitenge, at Hotel Kanon.

“We have gathered information that it might not be totally safe for them to venture alone into town, please if there are other members of Mazembe who have already gone into town, we advice that you urge them to come back and to please stay in the hotel.”
Violence erupted at Khartoum International Airport when the Mazembe delegation cleared immigration and customs’ formalities with hundreds of El-Merreikh fans pelting the visitors will all sorts of missiles from the first floor balcony of the airport.
The visitors, who were made to endure a three-hour wait at the airport, retaliated and used their water bottles to return fire and the running battles continued until police intervened and restored order.
The Mazembe delegation arrived in Khartoum from Zambia, where the team had been camped, aboard their brand new DC-83 plane called Katanga Wings.

Joke Of The Week
Ben asks his father the difference between POTENTIAL AND REALITY. Dad turns to his wife and asks; “Dear, will you sleep with another man if he offers you US$5 million?” She replies: “Yes, I won’t blow such an opportunity.”
Dad turns to his daughter and asks the same question and she replies, just like her mum: “Yes, daddy, I will do, it will make me rich.”
Dad turns to Ben and says: “You see, son, POTENTIALLY, we are sitting on US$10 million in this house, but in REALITY, takagara nepfambi pano mwanangu.

It’s All Over In The Premiership
Well, it has been quite a ride, those twists, those turns, that eight-point advantage that disappeared, Wigan staging that remarkable survival battle, others falling by the wayside, Manchester City asking Why Always US, Manchester United failing to provide the answer.
It all comes down to the final curtain being drawn tomorrow and you can’t see Manchester City failing, now that they can see the finishing line, and a 20th championship for us will have to wait.

It’s set to be the first time that the Premiership will be decided on goal difference and, just like during the ‘94/’95 season when Blackburn won, we will lose it on the final day.
We can’t win them all and, if we are honest to ourselves, we were ordinary this season and it’s a remarkable achievement that we took this race to the final day but you get a feeling, in the end, the best team won.
For the last time this season I will sign out with my battle cry:
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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