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IN just two years time, Zimbabwe’s Warriors and the Flames of Malawi will mark the 50th anniversary, the Golden Jubilee, of the two countries’ endless, and at times titanic, battles for supremacy in international football.

It’s a duel that started when this country was still a rogue state, a broken nation so horrible that even FIFA, an organisation that United States authorities claim is rotten to the core, decided we were too much of a stench to their global family, and expelled us from that community.

And, on our re-admission into FIFA at Independence in 1980, Malawi were our first Nations Cup opponents — away in Blantyre — and a 1-0 win for the Warriors provided the big announcement that, oh yes, we were not only back, but certainly back with a bang.

Since then, the Flames have been regular opponents for us and, on April 14, ’91, the Warriors — inspired by Moses Chunga’s best performance in national team colours — touched the heavens with one of their finest shows as they ripped apart the Malawians 4-0 in a ’92 Nations Cup qualifier at the National Sports Stadium.

With Chunga providing the midfield heartbeat for a side that would later, without him, evolve into the immortal Dream Team, a mean machine made in Germany and perfected in Zimbabwe, which will never be forgotten, the Warriors blew away the Flames with a performance, so rich in attacking quality, it was the closest thing we have had to a blitzkrieg.

Henry McKop, The Bully with a golden touch, scored twice that afternoon, Peter Ndlovu, the finest Warrior of all-time, was on target, too, and Chunga, the King whose battle with injuries prevented him from immortality when it comes to the Warriors, added the other goal.

The first game between the two countries, a friendly international on November 12 ’67, here, ended in a 1-0 win for us while the latest game, in Blantyre last Saturday, also ended in victory for us, as we posted another one-goal winning margin.

In terms of purity, the Warriors’ performance in that 4-0 destruction of the Flames was as good as our beloved national team has, or will ever produce although others can and with a lot substance to back their argument, say that our four-goal romp over Bafana Bafana at the giant stadium was a notch higher, maybe a bit richer and loaded with more fireworks it dwarfs everything that our boys have produced in that golden shirt on a football field.

In terms of resilience, some will probably argue that the Dream Team’s heroics in Lyon, France, as they somehow scrapped a draw against Egypt in that replay, which left them with four steps to scale for a place at the ’94 World Cup finals in the United States, was the greatest show that has come from our boys in our national colours.

But, while taking on mighty Egypt and coming out of that battle with a point good enough to win them the Group will always remain a very high point for the Warriors, the performance of the Class of 2015 in Blantyre on Saturday, hours after they had arrived there after a tortuous road trip from Harare, was very, very special, in terms of resilience, a never-say-die spirit and flying our national flag it will be remembered as both heroic and iconic.

In those 90 minutes, as they withstood the hostility of a home crowd that believed they were there for the taking, who mocked them for their chaotic travel arrangements and who felt that their team, fresh from an adventure in Egypt where they had been preparing for this game, would just burn their opponents to ashes, our Warriors not only distinguished themselves but turned into supermen who made all of us proud, very, very proud.

The honesty of their performance, against a depressing background where the moronic ZIFA leaders have — when it suits their agenda — repeatedly questioned these Warriors’ purity they even claimed that Knowledge Musona was a match-fixing wizard, and painted Khama Billiat, Cuthbert Malajila and Willard Katsande with the same brush, was as impressive as one can get from a national team.

Their spirited performance, in a match when their stamina was supposed to be destroyed by the intensity of the battle, as the horror road trip started to take its toll on them, defying SuperSport commentators who expected them to start losing steam in the second half, was the stuff that superheroes are made of.

The bravery of their show, against a background where the ZIFA leaders abandoned their cause in the lead-up to that game in Malawi, only for a football-loving prophet to come to their aid at the last-minute, refusing to be bullied into submission by a host that rarely loses at home, was the stuff that provided a reminder of a time, back in the years, when the Warriors were so special they used to attract 60 000 fans to the National Sports Stadium.

It’s on the solidity of such performances that teams can rebuild the bond of love, shattered by controversy and a poor run of results, and as the euphoric wave of happiness swept across this country on Saturday, after the Warriors completed their smash-and-grab raid in Blantyre, there was no questioning that this was, once again, a country that had fallen in love with its national football team.

KHAMALDINHO’S TEARS, SUPER GOAL AND THAT CONTROVERSY

The last time Khama Billiat played a Nations Cup tie, away from home, his adventure had ended in tears in Luanda, the photograph of him being helped off the pitch by assistant coach Peter Ndlovu and fitness trainer, Gerald Maguranyanga, turning into the defining symbol of that sensational collapse by the Warriors when a ticket to the 2013 AFCON finals in South Africa had appeared within our grasp.

Khamaldinho had been the outstanding player, in the Warriors’ 3-1 first leg win over the Palancas Negras at Rufaro which gave them us the edge ahead of the second leg battle in Luanda.

But the Warriors never got going in Luanda and Manucho’s double strike powered the Angolans to the result they wanted, to win the contest on away goals rule, and grab the ticket to the 2013 Nations Cup finals.

As Khama cried for his country, after his team’s collapse at the last-hurdle, ZIFA president, Cuthbert Dube, dropped a bombshell, as he addressed the nation in the wake of the team’s failure to qualify for the 2013 AFCON finals.

“On the (chartered) flight to Angola there were match-fixers, daring people, who are not even scared that there are investigations currently going on. We are going to meet as a board and see what their role was in this whole fiasco,” Dube told journalists.

“The Angolan match was fixed. We are getting reports. But other information is still coming through. There were some funny faces in Angola. Some photos were taken and we have taken stock.

“The Angola match had already been played the day before its scheduled kick-off. We know that this man who bribed our players came from Botswana and went to our house of horror (ZIFA offices) and purchased a ticket for that trip. The guy was in the same plane as our players and that is where everything happened.”

So, as we celebrated Khamaldinho’s stunning second half performance, where he was unplayable down the left channel, and his golden goal that sent all of us into delirium on Saturday, we shouldn’t forget that, in his last match in the colours of his nation, he was one of the people the game’s leadership accused of being a merchant of shame.

We shouldn’t forget, now that his super goal in Malawi has made all of us very, very happy, that he is one of the players that our football leaders said had chosen the shame of accepting bribes, in his last Nations Cup tie for our country, instead of a place at the 2013 AFCON Cup finals.

We shouldn’t embrace Khamaldinho and toast him as a hero, only when it suits us, and then label him a sell-out — as was the case after that match in Angola — when the result doesn’t suit our cause and we have to shift blame elsewhere because, as the game’s leaders, we will always be blameless even though it’s always clear that we are falling short in the discharge of our mandate.

We shouldn’t idolise Khama and hail him as a superman, only when it suits us, and be quick to label him a mercenary — as was the case after that match in Angola — when the result doesn’t suit our cause and we have to find someone to blame even when it’s clear that, as the leadership, we would have let down these guys who fly our national flag in the jungles of African football battles.

We shouldn’t now say Khama is a supermen, simply because he produced a dazzling show in that second half to help us win the game in Malawi, and when things don’t go according to plan, as they sometimes do in this game, we find it convenient to fall back to our regular excuse that he was part of a crew that was bought to ensure they lose.

When he turns on a special performance, as was the case that afternoon at Rufaro when we humbled Angola 3-1 and as was the case in that second half in Blantyre when he kept making a mockery of the man, or men, tasked with closing his route towards goal, and dousing the flames they had cast in his path, we should celebrate it for its purity.

And on the occasions that he fails to turn on such a special performance, which happens in football, with even global superstars Neymar, as we saw in that Brazil/Colombia game in the Copa America on Thursday morning, having an off day, we should not rush to label Khamaldinho as a merchant of shame whose failings were induced by some shadowy people.

As our boys showed in Blantyre on Saturday, without any preparations to talk about, after arriving for the battle just hours before the match, we have a base on which to build a competitive national team and if we can provide them with a leadership they need, and the one they expect from us, with the relationship being sustained by respect, in good and bad times, we could be on our way to something special.

THERE IS SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT PASUWA

Prophet Walter Magaya will certainly tell us the story of how Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, was rejected in Nazareth.

When Sabbath came, and Jesus began to teach in the synagogue, and how many who heard him were amazed.

“Where did this man get these things?” they asked.

“What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?”

And how they took offence at him only for Jesus to say to them, “A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOUR, EXCEPT IN HIS OWN TOWN, AMONG HIS RELATIVES AND IN HIS OWN HOME.”

And how Jesus could not perform any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them and how their lack of faith amazed Him and how he then went around teaching from village to village.”

Callisto Pasuwa can reflect on this powerful biblical tale and, as he battles for acceptance from fans who still believe he is not the genuine article, employers who believe he can be tossed around working for more than nine months in return for a $100 pay packet and journalists at home who are yet to accept that he is the real deal.

But worry not Mana, you are not walking alone here, they even doubted Jesus Christ and, if they can do that, who are you, the son of Baba na Mai Pasuwa, the guy from Chitungwiza, KwaSeke, to expect them to accept you.

Read the scriptures mate and one day you will come across this tale.

And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.

The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

More than two thousand years after His death, we still have a lot of these people of little faith mate and it doesn’t matter that you go to Cameroon and avoid defeat, go to Swaziland and avoid defeat and go to Malawi and avoid defeat, oh, by the way, you won in Blantyre, iniwo, kuita kunge these people of little faith, ufunge.

Zvakaoma Mana.

If you win tomorrow, they will say it’s just Comoros, as if they have forgotten you eliminated Cameroon.

You won in Blantyre, and they were saying it’s only Malawi, as if they have forgotten our last visit there, for a similar Nations Cup assignment nine years ago, ended in defeat for us.

After our boys’ win in Malawi, imagine what we could achieve if we were united, accepted and supported our coach, respected our players, our football leaders prioritised the team’s welfare and not boardroom battles and this week, from Monday to today, it was a celebration of our success in Blantyre on the back pages — Khamaldinho, Mukuruva, Salt and Vinegar, Malajila — and not the depressing news of the untimely suspensions of ZIFA officials?

Just imagine the possibilities, if our football leaders had decided not to spoil the Warriors’ success story in Blantyre with their meaningless and brutal purge of their critics, just two days after that game?

But then, that’s us, isn’t it?

 

To God Be The Glory!

Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Manabhunduuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

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