Saul and his men had all the aces, and the jokers, in their pack and it all looked good

sharukoIN the end, there were tears, enough to flood Lake Kariba, for a closely-knitted community which, as fate might have it, had this year celebrated the Nyami-nyami festival under the theme, “The legend rises again.”The promise of success had won them many allies, including thousands of supporters whose romantic persuasion to this game is powered by a Green Machine, neutrals tired of seeing the same dominant beast bullying everyone on this landscape, and even scores of journalists, hoping for a different Cinderella story.

There were even a number of sub-editors in their corner, desperate for a different back-page headline, after three years of dealing with the monotony that the Glamour Boys domination had given them, squeezing their creativity to the limit.

Saul and his men had all the aces, and all the jokers too, in their weaponry and when they woke up on a beautiful Sunday, they could smell the expectancy of nation that appeared ready to join them in their dance to celebrate their finest hour, the triumph secured in the heart of a suburb that prided itself as the birthplace of iconic political, and sporting, establishments in this country.

When they opened the Sunday newspapers, in the comfort of their camping site, all they could see were images, and words, in which they were being feted as Kings, the men who joined the immortals of the Black Rhinos’ Class of ’84, by also coming straight from Division One, to win the Premiership title in their first year in the top-flight.

And, even better still, they were being feted as the men who would match the legends of St Paul’s Musami of ‘67, by taking the biggest prize, on the domestic football scene, outside the major cities of Harare and Bulawayo, for the first time in 47 years, just three years short of the celebrations to mark the Golden Jubilee of that phenomenal achievement.

The soul of Father Antony Davies, the driving force behind that St Paul’s Musami football machine which won the ’67 league championship inspired by the likes of James Nxumalo, Jawett Nechironga, Felix Mbidzo and Abel Chinyani, shortly before the great George Shaya joined them the following year, would now rest in peace, 11 years after he died at the Jesuit House in Harare.

That we have all connived, in one way or another, to let his beloved stadium in Musami, which at its peak could accommodate as many as 15 000 people, into an eyesore, forgotten by a generation that let it be swallowed by the grass that invaded its stands and the neglect that destroyed its playing surface, hasn’t helped to comfort his soul tormented by our negligence.

But, in Saul, a firm believer, the stage appeared set for someone to help Father Davies’ soul finally rest in peace, showing him that, almost 50 years down the line, his incredible feat was still providing an inspiration for generations of Zimbabweans.

“I am a believer. I constantly kneel down and pray to God because this is a God given talent,” Saul said after his troops won in Week 29. “I wish that my God is with me and my boys do what they have been doing and we win that game, if we win that game then it means we will be champions.”

But, in just 90 dramatic minutes that had promised heaven and earth, plus a bit of the lovely islands dotted around the world’s fourth largest man-made lake from where they derive their name, it was all gone, as ZPC Kariba were consumed by the sheer magnitude of the mission and, like a candle in the wind, their light was blown away.

Saul never got his chance to become King, and a week spent bathing in the spotlight of colourful back pages that promised a happy ending, like the biblical victories over the Moabites and Philistines, a tomorrow that would bring gold and all the glitters that comes with it, ended in a brutal reality check that vibrated around the country.

Failure, and the suffocating stench that it throws around, usually breeds orphans and they were all alone, as the bond that had been bought by a common currency of pursuing a common mission of ensuring that a common enemy does not end up in the winners’ corner, was shattered by the doomed assignment.

All the appetite and, crucially the courage, they had shown in their previous match against the very enemy that united them with so many allies desperate for it to fail, in its latest quest for dominance, melted away inside the ground that, until now, had been their fortress.

The arrogance they had shown, in that Week 29 win that had its weight in gold and appeared to be a knock-out punch that had not only eliminated their rivals from the race, but thrust them in a position where it looked impossible to lose, evaporated in the tension of the occasion on Sunday, their grand ambitions betrayed by nerves that made it impossible for them to turn themselves from Boys to Men.

IT’S NEVER OVER UNTIL FAT LADY SINGS

Even against the booming background of the hysteria last week, which appeared to be accompanying what many felt was the routine procession of the inevitability of the crowning of ZPC Kariba as the champions of Zimbabwe football, there were some voices of caution that provided a reminder this wasn’t a done deal yet.

I was one of those voices and this was my piece last week:

“ZPC Kariba, unbeaten in their adopted home of Harare all season, are on the threshold of doing something special, tomorrow, by winning the Castle Lager Premiership title, in their first season in the top-flight league.

Any team, which beats the champions home and away, has a right to be champions and, exactly three years after Week 29 proved decisive, and swung the title race in Dynamos’ favour, the gods of football reminded Callisto Pasuwa that he was human, after all, with a decisive loss, in Week 29, against ZPC Kariba.

But this is a very strange game, indeed, and Falcao has scored once, in three months at Manchester United, Liverpool’s three forwards — Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini — are yet to score a Premier League goal in 998 minutes, Southampton are in second place in the championship race and Nigeria, the African champions, are out of the next tournament.

ZPC Kariba will win the league, of course they will win, that has been a very popular song in a country united by having grown weary of the DeMbare dominance, looking for a feel-good story of a David that floors Goliath or driven either by hatred, or jealousy, of the Glamour Boys.

BUT, IF THEY FAIL, THEY SHOULDN’T SAY NOONE TOLD US THAT THIS IS A VERY STRANGE GAME

And don’t call me a prophet a doom.”

Inevitably, there were bricks thrown at me with some even saying that I was completely out of touch with reality of this race, which in their view was only going to end one way, and even the DeMbare camp, itself, had long given up hope.

Only two people, Gibson Mahachi, the manager of a number of our players and coaches, who said he believed this was set for a dramatic ending that nothing could be taken for granted, and a reader in Chegutu, who identified himself as Chris, gave me the benefit of doubt in scores of responses.
“History will repeat itself, I am a CAPS supporter but my instincts tell me that CAPS will beat ZPC Kariba and DeMbare will dismiss How Mine to clinch the championship. Remember this sms,” texted Chris, him who doesn’t belong to that group of men of little faith.

His number is 07755636231, just in case, someone thinks I’m making up all this.

Then, at or around 5pm on Sunday, my mobile phone turned into a mini switchboard as some of those who had been walking the non-believers’ journey, suddenly saw the value of what I had told them that there was a little window of hope still open for the Glamour Boys.

Others posted on my Facebook page.

“You were spot on in your article boss. You are not a prophet of doom and Mangwiro is an oasis of Fair Play” — Milton, SA
I have always been taken by your stories but this Saturday you outdid yourself. Surely, Roby, you were spot on, they shouldn’t call you a prophet of doom at all — 0772440939.

In Zimbabwe we have Makandiwa, Magaya and Robson Sharuko. Yesterday vaka porofita — James Chitate Mashe.

U (You) are football prophet bla Rob. U (You) warned ZPC in your column Sharuko on Saturday last Saturday &they thought you were joking. It’s not over till it’s over — Fanuel Matambanadzo.

I have no words for you my brother but unowoneswa panyaya dzebhora — Tapfuma Chikosha.

To the Chakari Boy Robson Sharuko, hats off to you, somehow I just take note of your columns but opted to differ when you said DeMbare could snatch it just like that. You just made half a nation eat humble pie, indeed it’s a very strange game — Solomon Chingono.

We thought you were going nuts when you penned your article giving it to Dynamos, but you have proved some of us wrong — Tendai weChelsea Magweta.

Our friendship started many years ago, I came across a story in Parade saying Sharuko should be quite since he was not there from the beginning, and so I got an interest, I was doing Grade Seven, from that time I have never missed any article by Chakari Boy, even fighting in your corner when the ZIFA demons tried to bring you down with my prayers — Shingi Mujuru.

JUST LIKE BLACKBURN IN ’95, DEMBARE WON IT

In the ‘94/’95 English Premiership season, Blackburn Rovers lost their final game, away to Liverpool, but still won the championship after Manchester United, who could have been champions had they won at West Ham, could only manage a draw.

That Rovers team ended an 80-year wait for the league title and Alan Shearer and his teammates, under the guidance of Kenny Dalglish, have been feted as the Golden Generation, after beating the Red Devils to the title by a point.

They earned their respect, for ending the race with more points than United, and on the occasions that they celebrate that golden season when they were champions, they don’t invite West Ham to their parties for helping them win the league.

They won the league simply because every point they gained throughout that season, in their 27 wins and eight draws, when Premiership teams played 42 games, helped them end up with more points, (89) than any other team, including Manchester United (88).

To reduce what they did, in 42 games, to just one game, which they had no control over at Upton Park, would be an insult to what the likes of Shearer, Chris Sutton and company did throughout that remarkable season.

United, too, didn’t lose the league championship simply because they drew at West Ham in their final game but because of the points they dropped, in the entire race, in the nine other matches that they drew and the six games that we lost.

Yes, people get to remember the last game, because of the focus that it gets, but a league championship is a product of what happens throughout the season, every point playing a vital role in either success or failure, and if Dynamos had not won a point against Bantu Rovers or Chapungu, they certainly would not be champions today.

ZPC Kariba collapsed in the final game, fair enough, and lost their first game in their adopted home in the capital all season, but the three points they lost against CAPS United were just as precious as the three points they lost at Chapungu, the three points they lost against How Mine and the three points they lost against FC Platinum.

Yes, there is need for us to praise the professionalism among the CAPS United players, for giving it their all in a game that would not have changed much, in terms of how their season ends, but we should also praise the professionalism in Bantu Rovers, who came to Rufaro, when their relegation fate had already been sealed, and somehow pinched two points from Dynamos.

My colleague, Makomborero Gold Mutimukulu, famously said that Pasuwa didn’t win the league, Saul lost it, as he justified why Saul should be Coach of the Year.

I disagree on the basis that the league is about the 30 games, all of them, and over that marathon, Pasuwa won it and, in a year that he made history, as the first coach to win four straight league titles, he will lose the Coach of the Year crown to the coach whose history pursuit, to take the Premiership title outside Harare for the first time since Independence, ended in failure.

A coach who makes history, by doing something that has never been done in 52 years, is overshadowed by someone who failed to make history, trying to do something that was done 30 years ago.

But that has become very fashionable, hasn’t it, in the four years that Pasuwa has been champion, he has only won the Coach of the Year once, while Tennant Chilumba and Bigboy Mawiwi have been honoured during the same period?

Mhlauri won a second league title with CAPS United, in 2005, because over 30 games, his team had the most points, and not because Moses Chunga’s Dynamos, their relegation battle having long been won, about 20 minutes before the end of their rain-disrupted game at Mucheke when Njube Sundowns lost 2-5 to Motor Action, helped them by beating Masvingo United, in a match they could have lost, but still survived.

Yuna Yuna, needing a win to be champions, failed.

MESSAGE FROM ALOIS BUNJIRA

CAPS United didn’t win the league for Dynamos. CAPS United did not beat How Mine today. It was Dynamos who beat How Mine. Dynamos didn’t get all those points from CAPS United. They did it for themselves.

All ZPC needed was to draw against CAPS United but they failed. CAPS United won the game to finish at number three. Dynamos won their own game to finish at number one.

I know how most of the CAPS United fans are feeling. I do sympanthise with them. But I am sure they realise that sometimes it works that way in professional football. Dynamos are not really one of my favourite teams but Fair Play should always prevail.

I hope Dynamos fans should understand that and stop mocking CAPS United fans for the professionalism of their team.

CAPS United fans should walk tall and be proud of their team and the CAPS United brand. Every team is where it is because of the way they played throughout all 30 games of the season.

To God Be The Glory!

Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Di Mariaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
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Like my Facebook page, ROBSON SHARUKO JOURNALIST, follow me on Twitter @Chakariboy, interact with me on Viber and on ZBC’s weekly television football magazine programme, GamePlan on Monday nights, or read my material in The Southern Times.

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