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THE last time Highlanders were Premiership champions now looks like a long time ago – for goodness sake, back then, the Warriors were even strong enough to beat Ghana at the Nations Cup finals.That was SEVEN years ago and, earlier in 2006, the Warriors marked one of their highest points, in a turbulent history, when Benjani Mwaruwari and Cephas Chimedza scored in an historic 2-1 victory over the World Cup-bound Ghana in Egypt.

Interestingly, in the week that Bosso took over the leadership, in the domestic Premiership race, and thrust themselves into a very strong position to be crowned champions again, the Black Stars and the Pharaohs provided a sub-plot that also caught the eye.

We were always going to follow the Pharaohs closely, because their progress, or lack of it, in the 2014 World Cup campaign would provide a barometer that would give us a rough idea of where we stood today, in international football, given they were in our group and beat us home and away.

But nothing could have prepared us for the wild events that unfolded, on a rainy afternoon in Kumasi on Tuesday, as the Black Stars humiliated the Pharaohs 6-1.

There was a biblical touch to this incredible result, claimed some analysts, the 6-1 result in Kumasi represented Exodus 6 verse 1 which, in the New International Version of the Bible, reads:

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.’”

Where the children of Israel stood, waiting to be delivered from the Pharaohs and taken to the Promised Land of Canaan, now stood the children of the Land of the Black Stars, waiting to be freed from the clutches of the Pharaohs and delivered to the Promised Land of the World Cup.

The Pharaohs’ capitulation in Kumasi made a mockery of our 2014 World Cup campaign and that a team that scored SIX goals against us, in two games, and won all its SIX games in our group, could be thrashed so helplessly in the final qualifiers, provided a painful but timely reminder of the poor state of our national team.

I never felt the Pharaohs were an exceptional team, in our World Cup duels against them, but I felt at key moments, our crippling shortcomings, worsened to a large extent by coaches plucked from hell, held us back and exposed us so much it made a team that was average, like Egypt, somehow look out of this world.

It’s remarkable, isn’t it, that SEVEN years ago we could not only stand toe-to-toe with these Black Stars, on the grand stage of the Nations Cup, but we could even beat them, as evidenced by that remarkable victory over the West Africans, on the neutral fields of Ismailia that night in Egypt.

There were SEVEN goals in Kumasi between Ghana and Egypt on Tuesday, SEVEN years to the year that we beat Ghana in Egypt, SEVEN years have now passed since Bosso were last crowned champions of the domestic scene and SEVEN years since the biggest trophy in Zimbabwean football was last won by a team from outside the capital.

It’s the longest barren spell for Bosso, without the league championship trophy in their cabinet, since Highlanders found a way to win the biggest prize on the domestic football scene in ’90 and winning again in ’93, ‘98/’99, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2013.

But there is a feeling in the Bosso camp that this is their moment, their golden chance, and having come very close last year, only losing the race because of an inferior goal difference having finished tied on points with eventual champions Dynamos, a triumph this season will not certainly come as something unexpected.
A Bosso Triumph And The Virtues It Represents

Highlanders have already lost SIX games, which is five more league losses than they did the whole season in the championship last year, but with just SIX games left in the season, they have their fate in their hands and if they win all their matches no one can catch them and deny them their special prize.

A Bosso triumph in this championship race will be embraced as one that shows that good men, like Kelvin Kaindu, can also come first in this beautiful, yet very brutal, game where an entire season’s good work can be lost in the madness of just a small mistake by a defender, a ‘keeper or a striker who loses his touch at a crucial moment.

There are a lot of people who like Kaindu simply for his enduring faith in God, the fact that he is always ready to make his deep beliefs in the Almighty a public subject, the fact that he embraced the pain of that close loss last year as a gift from the Lord, because his team finished with as many points as the one that won the race, and the fact that the events of last season didn’t break his faith.

There are a lot of people who respect the Zambian gaffer for being a man who is not cut from the cloth that makes controversial characters who litter the profession where he earns his living, too numerous to mention in just one episode of this blog, and they wish him well because they believe he represents an isolated island of dignity in a vast ocean of  madness.

There are a lot of people who respect Kaindu for being a humble guy, just like the guy who lives next door, and even on that isolated occasion when he appeared to lose his cool, when he exploded claiming referees were ganging up against him, and he threatened to return home to Zambia, they were happy that he quickly realised the error of his ways.

After being beaten by just one team, Monomotapa, in 32 competitive League and Cup games last season, and losing just two games against the same opponents and unbeaten in 30 other games against 14 other teams (29 league matches, including the one against Monoz at Barbourfields plus the Mbada Diamonds Cup first round), some neutrals will feel Kaindu deserves his glory this time around.

But a Bosso victory in the championship race this season will represent something far bigger than the feel-good tale of a nice man like Kaindu finally coming first in a game so unpredictable, and at times so hostile it can deny such good men their moments in the sunshine, BECAUSE SUCH A VICTORY WILL REPRESENT AN INSTITUTIONAL SUCCESS STORY.

And such a triumph is more important than one that is simply rooted to the exploits of an individual who might not be there tomorrow.
For the Bosso executive to stand their ground, and keep their faith in Willard Mashinkila-Khumalo when there was rebellion in their supporters’ ranks with a militant group baying for his blood and accusing him of casting a bad spell on the team, was the mark of true leadership and if they can be rewarded with a league championship then the better for our football because it presents a model of how to run such a huge public institution.

Of course, it was not easy, but the Bosso leadership showed that supporters are not necessarily right and given what this legend called Mawiiiiiiii has given to this club in the past, which in my humble estimate is more than what the current leaders have contributed, in their combined capacities both in the past and present, they couldn’t find a basis why such a great son of this club could work against its success.

That’s leadership, brilliant leadership, and if it can be rewarded by success, like winning the championship, then so be it.

This DeMbare Meltdown Might Not Be Doom And Gloom

On Wednesday night I posted on my Facebook page that Dynamos’ poor run is a mockery of their championship status but I said I have seen so much in the past to be tempted to join the bandwagon of those who have gone to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro to tell us that this is the beginning of the end of the Glamour Boys’ defence of their championship crown.

That post went viral on Facebook, especially when the guys who run the DeMbare Dotcoms page decided to post my thoughts on their wall, and it generated a lot of responses, some expectedly not kind, others regrettably very abusive, some incredibly sober.

But I have come to understand the sensitivity of the minefield where I operate, every word I utter followed with keen interest, its impartiality or lack of it quickly digested and comments quickly made and opinions shaped, and I take all the blows, including that which come below the belt, and all the hugs of comfort, as part of life in these trenches.

Yes, DeMbare have lowered the bar on the standards they have set for themselves in the past two years and their performance, of late, has been an insult to the heights they scaled en-route to success, a sickening joke of the never-say-die spirit they exhibited in that spectacular smash-and-grab heist at Mandava two years ago.

In the past four nightmarish games against Hwange, Monomotapa, How Mine and FC Platinum, the Glamour Boys have become what Shakespeare would have described as a “walking shadow, a poor team that struts and frets its one-and-half hour upon the stage and is heard no more, a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.”

Pasuwa acknowledges that things aren’t fine right now, because they are losing games, including suffering their first loss in the capital since June last year, they have the worst strikeforce among the Top Five teams and they have scored fewer goals compared to Buffaloes and Triangle.

But my point on Wednesday night was that only a fool can read the last rites on this Dynamos championship campaign, can safely say that the Glamour Boys, even in their current crippled state are down and out and the MERE FACT THAT THEIR FATE IS STILL IN THEIR HANDS, GIVEN THAT IF THEY WIN ALL THEIR FINAL SIX GAMES THEY WILL BE CHAMPIONS, just reinforces my point that it’s too early to write them off.

It’s a measure of their greatness, really, that people say there is a serious crisis at DeMbare, with some even suggesting that a coach who has won so much in the past two years should be fired, that people say they have crashed to their so-called lowest point and heads should therefore roll, when they are just two points adrift of the leaders of the championship race.

They created their greatness and it’s a turf they must defend, for the sake of their brand and the sake of their fans, and I don’t buy this stuff that the loss of an assistant coach, who was there in their dressing room when they were running those half-a-dozen draws at the beginning of the season, can suddenly cripple an institution as huge as DeMbare.

Life at the top, as Pasuwa must have noted by now, is usually a lonely business but while the strong can FALL DOWN, now and again, it’s only the weak who STAY DOWN.

And the Dynamos coach can draw inspiration from the greatest of them all, Muhammad Ali, who after losing his first fight to Ken Norton in March ’73, said: “I never thought of losing, but now that it’s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. WE ALL HAVE TO TAKE DEFEATS IN LIFE.”

That’s the way life is and the same players that some people are beginning to say are a heap of rubbish have been top of the table, until their defeat at FC Platinum on Wednesday, have the best defence in the league, even after all the pounding they have taken, and yes, they have hit a bad patch, but it doesn’t mean they have become useless overnight.
“You Are All A Bunch of  Thieves, You And The Journalists”

Portuguese coach, Diamantino Miranda, is back home in Portugal after being given 48 hours last Thursday to leave Mozambique, where he was head coach of Costa do Sol, by Labour Minister Helena Taipo, for insulting the country.

Miranda’s problems started when he was recorded by a journalist saying Mozambicans were “a bunch of thieves” after a controversial refereeing call cost his side in a 1-2 defeat to Vilanculos.

“All (the people) here are thieves. You are all a bunch of thieves, you and other journalists can be bought off with a bowl of soup. This country is not serious,” a seething Miranda was recorded as saying.

The coach, who cried and apologised at a media conference called by his club which stood by him, said he was unaware, when he made those comments, that he was talking to a journalist and was also being recorded.

The Mozambique Government said the coach showed “a lack of respect, civility and consideration of the values enshrined in the constitution of the republic as well as legislation in force in our country.”

You just don’t come to a people’s country and, because you are white and you feel you are a better person than them, and start calling them thieves or whatever, and hope that everything will be fine.

Four years ago, the Zimbabwe Cricket leadership woke up one day to find damning reports, describing them as “FRAUDSTERS, ABYSMAL THUGS AND NASTY CREATURES”, posted on the official website of their principal, the then Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, of all people.

The damaging reports, written by British cricket correspondent Peter Roebuck in Australian and South African newspapers, called for the isolation of Zimbabwe Cricket from the global cricket family and slammed overtures made by those willing to help the game to get back on its feet.

Next month it will be four years since Coltart posted those reports on his website, it will be two years since Roebuck leapt from his sixth-floor hotel room in Cape Town, to his death, as police moved in to question him over a male friend who had filed sexual assault charges against him.

Maybe, just a timely reminder to the likes of Miranda and company that “FRAUDSTERS, ABYSMAL THUGS AND NASTY CREATURES” don’t necessarily have to be black people but can also be found among the whites.

To God Be The Glory!

Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

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