Maravi

(HERALD) Zambia's approach exposes ZIFA

Zambia's approach exposes ZIFA
Friday, 10 February 2012 20:12

The Zambians have shown us the way and you get a feeling that the biggest problem with our football, in terms of its national management structures, is the recycling of leadership, the majority of it being deadwood. Somehow this feels like '94 and you don't have to be a Zambian to be swept away by the tide of nostalgia that has turned 2012 into a carbon copy of 1994.

Just like in ‘94, Zambia are in the final of the Nations Cup after capping a good tournament with a stunning 1-0 semi-final victory over the Black Stars of Ghana on Wednesday night.

Just like in ‘94, the Zambians eliminated a West African football powerhouse, in the semi-finals, and while it was Ghana on Wednesday night, it was Cote d'Ivoire who were beaten by Chipolopolo at the same stage of the competition 18 years ago.

And, just like in ‘94, the margin of the semi-final victory for the Zambians was 1-0.
Chillingly, the goal that made all the difference for the Zambians, in the semi-finals of the ‘94 and 2002 Nations Cup, came at exactly the same time.

Kenneth "Bubble" Malitoli scored the goal that knocked out Cote d'Ivoire and swept Zambia into the ‘94 Nations Cup final in the 78th minute.

Emmanuel Mayuka scored the priceless goal that knocked out Ghana and swept Zambia into the 2012 Nations Cup finals in the 78th minute.

Incredibly, Kalusha Bwalya's goal, which gave Zambia a 1-1 draw against Zimbabwe at the National Sports Stadium for the ticket to the ‘94 Nations Cup finals, had come in the 78th minute.

Just like in ‘94, Zambia will face West African opposition in the final of the Nations Cup and, after losing 1-2 to Nigeria in Tunisia, they face the might of the Ivorians in the final of the 2012 tournament in Libreville, Gabon, tomorrow.

And, as fate might have it, the Ivorians - just like the Nigerians in ‘94 - will be chasing their second Nations Cup silverware.

Just like in ‘94, Mali will play in the third-place play-off the Nations Cup and, after having lost 1-3 to Cote d'Ivoire for the bronze medal in Tunisia, the Eagles now have to beat Ghana to take home something from a tournament where they have generally impressed.

In ‘94, the last four places in the Nations Cup finals were taken by three West Africans - Nigeria, Mali and Cote d'Ivoire, with Zambia gate-crashing the party.
In 2012, the last four places in the Nations Cup finals were taken by three West Africans - Mali, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, with Zambia gate-crashing the party.
Well, different people remember ‘94 for different reasons.

It was the year South Africa held its first full multi-racial elections, bringing a close to the sad chapter of apartheid, and Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the first black President of the Rainbow Nation.

The plane carrying Rwandan President, Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundi counterpart, Cyprien Ntaryamiradie, was shot down, near Kigali on April 7, ‘94 and, the following day, the Rwanda genocide began.

Matt Busby, the great Scotsman who survived a plane crash in Munich in ‘58 that decimated his Manchester United squad, before using his coaching brilliance to shape the Red Devils into a team that would be crowned European champions 10 years later, died in ‘94.

The world didn't know it then but a boy born in Canada, named Justin Bieber, would in a few years turn into one of the biggest teen pop sensations of our time.
Kalusha will probably not say it, for now until the game is over tomorrow, but this feels like ‘94 all over again and, hopefully, this time, it will end with the Zambians celebrating.

After the ‘94 Nations Cup finals, the football festival moved to South Africa who hosted the tourney in ‘96. After the 2012 Nations Cup finals, the football festival will move again to South Africa for the 2013 tournament.

Feels Like ‘94 Here In Zimbabwe

Even here in Zimbabwe, you get that feeling that it feels like ‘94 all over again.
Dynamos were league champions in ‘94 and they are league champions right now.
There was chaos in the Division One league at the start of the ‘94 domestic Premiership season with Rufaro Rovers and United FC fighting a fierce boardroom battle for the right to play in the top-flight league.

There is chaos in the Division One leagues right now with fierce boardroom battles, for the right to play in the Premiership, having erupted between Harare City and Dstv and Tripple B and Hardbody.

In ‘94, there was chaos, too, in the Warriors' coaching department.
Caf had handed a one-year ban to Reinhard Fabisch, for bringing the game of football into disrepute, after waving a number of American bank notes at the referee, in a mock illustration that he had been bribed, following the Warriors' 1-3 loss to Cameroon in a World Cup qualifier in Yaounde.

In 2012 you get a feeling there is chaos in the Warriors' coaching department.
Zifa have ordered Norman Mapeza to step aside from the 2013 Nations Cup qualifier against Burundi on the basis that he has to clear his name first against charges that he was bribed by Asian betting syndicates when he led the Warriors in the 2010 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup.

We missed the ‘94 Nations Cup finals when we failed to win the last qualifier, against the Zambians, at home with Kalusha's late equaliser giving Chipolopolo the point they needed, in a 1-1 draw, to go to Tunisia.

We missed the 2012 Nations Cup finals when we failed to win the last qualifier, against Cape Verde, in Praia, when a victory there would have given us the ticket to Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

In ‘94, we were talking about what would have been, talking about Peter Ndlovu and still going crazy about how he slalomed past the entire Bafana Bafana defence to score one of the greatest goals that will ever grace the African football fields in an emphatic 4-1 victory for us.

In 2012 we are talking about Peter Ndlovu and all the great expectations we have for him now that he has taken the first step in a journey that should ultimately take him into the seat, like Kalusha, of coaching the senior national football team he captained with distinction.

In ‘94, all we could do was imagine about what could have been had our boys made that one final leap and qualified for the Nations Cup finals and, as part of the discussions, Rahman Gumbo's crucial goals against Bafana Bafana and Mauritius featured prominently.

In 2012, we are talking about Rahman Gumbo given that, after years of expatriate service in Malawi and Botswana, he has not only returned home but has once again been handed the baton to lead his country's senior national football team.

The Dream Team that battled for the ‘94 Nations Cup and ‘94 World Cup finals did not qualify for any of those tournaments and, to a lot of critics with short memories, that failure robbed them of greatness.

To those critics, the real great Warriors sides are the ones that qualified for the 2004 and 2006 Nations Cup finals.

Yes, in football it's achievements that define greatness but, to me, the Dream Team that battled in the ‘94 Nations Cup and ‘94 World Cup finals was the greatest collection of Warriors that we have ever assembled.

They failed in their mission, regrettably, but there was honour in their failure.
They finished the qualifiers of the ‘94 Nations Cup finals without losing even a single game in six matches with away games in Zambia, South Africa and Mauritius.
They came within 90 minutes of qualifying for the ‘94 World Cup finals and, in the process, they took a cool four points off heavyweights Egypt and beat both Cameroon and Guinea.

They were unbeaten by the Zambians in 180 minutes, in Harare and in Lusaka, and that same Chipolopolo team went all the way to reach the final of the Nations Cup finals in ‘94 in Tunisia.

Take a bow, Reinhard Fabisch and his Dream Team because, while they might not have made the final leap, they were the greatest we ever had.

The 2012 Nations Cup In A Zim Context

What did we learn from the 2012 Nations Cup finals?

The big message, for me, was that our Warriors, for all the character assassination they have suffered at the hands of this devilish Zifa board, are as good as any team on the continent.

My main interest, as the tournament progressed, was focused on Mali and I was impressed with the way the Eagles performed in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, going all the way to the semi-finals, and finally losing to Cote d'Ivoire 0-1 in a tight semi.

In the end, in that game against Didier Drogba and his high-profile teammates, anything could have happened and the line that divided the winners and the losers was very thin.

Solid in defence, mobile in midfield and with a bite in attack where the gangly Cheikh Diakite proved a handful to many a defence, Mali were impressive throughout the tourney.

In the quarter-final against Gabon, they refused to be intimidated by that partisan home crowd, which included a national President who had been so charmed by his team's performance he became a permanent feature at their matches.

They recovered from a shaky start and, even after they fell a goal down, they did not fall apart as they used their strong character to rebuild their mission and, in the closing stages of the game, they were rewarded with the equaliser they deserved.

They could have won it, at the very end, but Seydou Keita miscued his effort, from close range, way over the bar.

Somehow, in that intimidating and hostile atmosphere, the Malians held their nerve in the penalty shootout drama and converted all their five spot kicks.

It's the same Malian team that we played over two legs in the same qualifiers for the 2012 Nations Cup finals and, in 180 minutes, there was very little to choose between them and us.

They beat us 0-1 in Bamako and, once again, our preparations for that match were chaotic and we never knew when we were going, with the trip hanging in the balance, until Cuthbert Dube took the title deeds of his house to the bank to secure a loan to fund the flight.

Diakite scored the only goal of the match but we gave as much as we got in that encounter and the Zimbabwe journalists who covered that game came back wondering how we didn't get a penalty when Nyasha Mushekwi was pulled down inside the box.

Injury had ruled Knowledge Musona out of that game, which was a big blow for us, considering that our talisman had supplied the bulk of goals for the Warriors.

But, with Musona back in the fold in Harare, we took the game to the defensive Malians and Khama Billiat's strike should have stood rather than disallowed for an off-side that never was.

With Ovidy Karuru playing his best game for the Warriors in a free midfield role, in which he kept cutting inside from the right, we duly got the breakthrough when Ovidy fed Musona and Knowledge lifted the ball home for the first goal.

The plucky Malians equalised but our defence was to blame for giving them a soft goal. But to the Warriors' credit, they didn't throw in the towel, even as time tormented their campaign and a draw, which would have meant elimination, turned into the most likely result.

We got our due rewards, Ovidy was fouled and Musona took the spot-kick, not once, but twice, and the Warriors powered to a 2-1 win that kept alive their Nations Cup campaign.

In back-to-back matches against the Malians, we scored two goals and conceded two goals, which means there was very little to choose between us.

Now, if that same Mali team is good enough to qualify for the semi-finals of the 2012 Nations Cup, what does that say about the strength of our team?

We have the players, no doubt about that, but we are weighed down by a plethora of issues and rather than concentrate on the game, we concentrate on individuals, we try to settle scores, we treat our players with disdain, we have the worst possible preparations by any team and, in the end, we shoot ourselves in the foot.

Will King Peter Turn Into Our Kalusha?

Kalusha Bwalya has worked wonders for Zambian football since he exploded on the scene at the ‘88 Olympic Games in Seoul and scored twice as Chipolopolo shocked the world with a stunning 4-1 victory over Italy.

He has always been the Prince of Zambian football.

As a player he represented greatness in that national team jersey and, when disaster struck off the coast of Gabon and he was not wiped away in that plane crash, Kalusha became the symbol of defiance that helped reshape the Zambian national team into a competitive unit again.

He kept leading from the front and, usually, when all hope seemed lost, the Zambians would turn to King Kalu for salvation.

And, more often than not, he used to deliver.

Rewind to Harare, the National Sports Stadium, the final ‘94 Nations Cup qualifier, freeze the moment, 12 minutes left in the game, we are leading by a goal scored by Henry "Bully" McKop, we have struck the bar and we have the momentum.

The Zambians look shell-shocked, time is not on their side, the noise has died in the bay that is housing their fans and the National Sports Stadium is going hysterical with the Yave Nyama Yekugocha song.

You can feel this is the moment, all that we have been waiting for 13 years, everything crystalised in that one magical moment and you feel time flying away, taking you closer to your date with destiny.

The Zambians know that only Kalusha can save them, they expect him to do something special, something that he has never done before and that's exactly what he did.
Cometh the hour, cometh the hero!

Kalusha glanced the ball past ‘keeper Bruce Grobbelaar, his first headed goal in international football, and the Zambians were on their way to Tunisia.

King Kalu has coached Chipolopolo and is now the Football Association of Zambia President, and the national team brand has been revived. After the Zambians made it to the quarter-finals in Angola, they are now in the finals in Gabon.

Peter Ndlovu is the greatest Warrior to wear the gold and green jersey of the senior national team and, just like the Zambians, who always looked to King Kalu to deliver something special when push came to shove, we always looked to King Peter.

A decorated Warrior who emerged from leading the Dream Team attack to become the captain of his country, taking the Warriors to the Nations Cup finals in Tunisia and Egypt, King Peter has seen it all, and done it all, on the playing field.

On Monday, he was handed his first coaching role in the national teams' set-up when Zifa appointed him the coach of the Under-23 national team.

Granted, this team always has very little action and, with the All-Africa Games gone for another four years and the Olympics not coming back, after London, until four years from now, it will largely be a docile team with very little competitions.

I guess Peter will be drafted into the senior team, as one of Rahman Gumbo's assistants for the Burundi tie, and he will have a permanent slot in that technical team, as one of the assistants, when a substantive line-up is unveiled.

Peter has a lot to learn, as a coach, and I understand the frustrations that are coming from the camp that is questioning his credentials to hold such a post because they have never seen him tested at any level of coaching in his life.

But there has to be a starting point all the time and, who knows, maybe Peter could turn into the super coach that we have been waiting for all this time.

I have the ultimate respect for Peter Ndlovu and I sincerely hope that he is a success story in anything he does because he was a unique football talent, a man I was proud to call my captain, and we were lucky that he was born in Bulawayo and not in Lusaka.

I have also had this feeling that Peter will, one day, be a big part of the Warriors, as a coach, and while that might take some time, you feel he has been put in the right place and what is left is for him to develop.

Hopefully, with time, King Peter will be our version of King Kalu and he will not stop only at coaching the national team but, one day, take control of Zifa as its president.

The Zambians have shown us the way and you get a feeling that the biggest problem with our football, in terms of its national management structures, is the recycling of leadership, the majority of it being deadwood.

While the Zambians have embraced the future and taken in young blood that is helping them take huge steps forward, we are still stuck with leaders who were in charge of the same game when Knowledge Musona had not yet been born.

The majority of them still live in the past, allergic to embracing the changes happening in the game, and most of them have a lot of old scores to settle they spend four years just doing that whenever they are plucked back from obscurity and into national prominence.

Spare A Thought For Norman

Norman Mapeza must be wondering what the hell he put himself into when he accepted the offer to lead his national team after Sunday Chidzambwa had quit.

He lost a board vote, when Madinda was still around, 2-9, to head the team, which meant nine board members did not believe in him.

He was given a makeshift team to take to the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup and now stands accused of having been bribed with US$1 000 to rig a Warriors' match.

For a man, one of the few in our game, who invested his fortune from a playing career wisely and built himself a mansion, the accusations must be baffling and he finds himself accused of having been sent to the wrong place at the wrong time.

But they say time is a healer and, incredibly, the amount of sympathy that is pouring towards Mapeza, through text messages being sent to this newspaper and online, is touching.

Even if he clears his name, in an environment that has been so poisoned doing so will be tantamount to moving a mountain, Norman should just quit.

There is no point for him to continue working with this board.

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

Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

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Labels: FOOTBALL, ZAMBIA, ZIFA

posted by MrK @ 7:06 PM