The Sunday News
Cosmas Zulu
Highlanders FC vs Shabanie Mine FC
Barbourfields Stadium
League Game 22 /04/2018
The habit of success can build into our grey matter patterns and the feeling of success at any time.
When Shabanie scored a gem of a volley goal, switched from left to the far post where the ball was struck in lightning speed, and if there is one man or woman at the stadium who blamed goalkeeper Ariel Sibanda, please raise your arm. When the ball was struck, you could hear the drop of a pin in the stadium. The way Highlanders reacted after this goal, with the mixing of crisp passing, mobility runs and supporting the man on the ball was what the doctor ordered. The winning of the individual tussles with Peter Muduwa displaying his aggressive character showed that the equaliser was coming. And from one of the dead ball situations where Highlanders are becoming deadly, Peter came up with a pretty back heeler goal, sending the stadium into wild cheers.
Highlanders had ten corners for which Shabanie struggled to defend and the hosts got their second goal from one of the corners. After that Shabanie players could not compete on all situations and it was no surprise when the third goal came after the Shabanie goalkeeper made a mess out of it. Success is literally built upon success and there is much truth in saying, “Nothing succeeds like success”.
Highlanders FC vs Bulawayo City FC Independence Cup — White City Stadium
18/04/2018
To Zifa and PSL, you must have witnessed a big crowd for the 38th Uhuru. That crowd enjoyed every minute of the game. I think you must find a way to cultivate a culture to woo these crowds to some of league games by reducing admission charges to $1,00 especially for teams that do not attract big crowds, instead of playing being watched by referees, club officials, journalists and less than 50 spectators. With good advertising clubs will realise better financial returns. I will explain to you why I say so. The Bulawayo City Council found themselves with no good patronage in their beer halls because they failed to bring some entertainment for the youths within their neighbourhood. Now the so called patrons of the 70s and 80s are old or have moved to the rural areas. The youths during this period patronise bars in town where there is satellite television with international football, music and soccer gambling halls. Now it’s difficult to bring them back to their own suburbs.
Kodak the photo company also did not see this coming. Now everyone is a photographer with his/her cellphone. I am warning football administrators that they might find themselves caught in this net where crowds in stadia become few with the rest watching soccer on their cellphones. I wrote this in one of my columns that they should give Under-18 boys and girls free entry into stadia. This is another way of cultivating the culture of watching football and talent identification if they watch live games. Last week when the National team lost to Botswana at the 38th Uhuru game at the National Stadium, the national team coach bemoaned failing to have creative players in the mould of Ronald “Gidiza” Sibanda. I believe there are many other players out there who can do the job, talent identification is key.
Bulawayo Chiefs FC vs FC Platinum
The winning feeling is everybody’s secret of good football. When you have it the ball even bounces right for you and that seems to control that elusive element called luck. The two goals scored by Chiefs were gifts, first sneaking the ball away from a relaxed and over confident F.C. Platinum defender which was scrambled into the net by Mandishora the captain. The second goal was from a free kick, beautifully curled into the corner of the roof by none other than the industrial Moses Majika, never mind Chiefs missing four other good scoring chances. These were crucial three points for Chiefs, especially when they beat league champions.
F C Platinum defenders struggled to contain the two Chiefs strikers every time they made diagonal runs in the last third of the pitch. They were exposed so much that it was going to be an embarrassing story. The lack of mixing aggression element in their passing philosophy will in future cost them.
World — Cup 1950 Brazil
There was no World Cup staged from 1938 until 1950 because of the World War Two. The Italy sports ministry conspired to remove the trophy from its storage in the vaults of the Rome bank and delivered it to their secretary Otto Barassi, who, fearful of its discovery and confiscation, hid it in a shoe box and stowed it under the bed. There it remained in safety, waiting patiently for hostilities to cease so that once again it could ignite and inflame the passions of football lovers the world over in its own unique way. The trophy was won by Uruguay after beating Brazil 2-1.
A good technical team
The team needs assistant coaches who are capable of reading the game and are able to see things the head coach doesn’t see and advice correctly, not to just sit on the bench and agree on things because they want to be judged as understanding assistants. Don’t be a blue-eyed boy or a yes Nkosi man. Debate nicely and come up with a good decision to help the team.
Until next week let’s keep reading. Feed back [email protected]
