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ADMITTEDLY I’m a pedestrian local football fan. Tsholotsho FC’s arrival this season has helped me to truly make an effort to follow the game like a person who has put his money where his mouth is.

As serious as I intend to be, I now read anything to do with Zimbabwean football even if it means reading about Sport and Culture Minister Andrew Langa saying he knows nothing.

But the story dearest to me, related to the introduction above, is that more than once in the Matabeleland Region we have seen budding football teams inheriting supporters from Highlanders FC but we are yet to see one that will really steal the thunder.

At one point there was Zimbabwe Saints. Along came the likes of Eagles, Hwange, Amazulu, Chicken Inn, How Mine and Bantu Rovers.

Now, enter Tsholotsho FC in a similar fashion. Highlanders FC have the bragging rights to say “we’re their role models” just like they can claim to be for any other team that springs up in the region.

Fair and fine, but with Tsholotsho FC it is not about the new boys shopping Bosso’s “over the hill” talent. The similarities are limited.

Tsholotsho FC wear the same colours that Highlanders FC don and primarily many in the team’s ranks were Highlanders FC supporters.

Like it or not that has changed. Tomorrow the odds will be against Tsholotsho FC whose coach, Lizwe Sweswe, told the Press most of his players have never played at Barbourfields.

Those that have done battle there, will testify that it’s not child’s play. For the new boys, imagine yourself at the centre of the pitch with more than 10,000 football lovers’ eyes glued to your feet?

Cheers, boos and insults coming one’s way, when you get a move right or wrong, cheers get louder to a point one might not even hear the referee’s whistle.

Before the referee starts the game, all a player can hear is his own heartbeat. Those prayers and rehearsed moments blackout and some animal takes over. It’s the same feeling one gets before a major examination. You get to remember all the answers when you have handed in your script.

Back to the pitch, if one gets the first touch wrong, they’re out of it for the next 90 minutes. It’s do or die!

It could be the same for coaches when they get the plot wrong. There is a classic story about an assistant coach of an established football team who during half time was asked to give the boys a pep talk. With the team trailing 2-0 all he could say was:

“Pressure, pressure fakani (put) pressure there is nothing here.”

The assistant was clueless he had indirectly told his players to just go do whatever! It was a bloodbath after 45 minutes.

Lizwe Sweswe must know that when the going gets tough it’s then that the real atomic structure of Tsholotsho FC would be known. Are they hardcore or a mere passing fad?

But for a Tsholotsho FC player, there is little to lose. Arrival on the big stage was the ultimate goal, but now things have changed, survival in the top flight is what matters. A draw is some sort of victory for a maiden team.

Tsholotsho FC would want to avoid a situation like what happened at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when The United States Basketball men’s “Dream Team” with superstars from the NBA represented the US.

It became a circus when players from other countries did battle against their role models such as Michael Jordan and Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Marking a player like Michael Jordan with a shoe endorsement one would dream of owning reduced the games to exhibitions. Rival players would be seen carrying their shirts to get autographs at the end.

Thank God the selfie phenomenon was not yet around.

I wouldn’t want to see Tsholotsho FC’s Simbarashe Gorogodyo rushing to pose for a picture with Obadiah Tarumbwa, the same player that defender Ocient Ncube would have treated with respect on the field as if he was a demi-god.

My point being, when the two teams meet no one owes anyone anything. It won’t be a popularity contest among them; it will be a game that could affect Highlanders FC coach Bongani Mafu’s charges at Bosso and that could be a match to prove that Tsholotsho FC did not ride on beginners luck or as many Bosso fans think, baptism of fire for the first timers.

Pub talk, (yes that talk by staunch Bosso supporters) is that the odds are against new boys Tsholotsho FC.

It extends to; “What if the stadium is not finished on time in July and the team’s fate of relegation a near reality?”

Not that they mean bad for the team, they want it to do just fine against any other team, Dynamos in particular with the hope of staying on next season.

It makes economic sense to have more teams from Matabeleland because it would mean less travelling expenses for Highlanders, Chicken Inn, How Mine and Hwange.

Just like in politics where it’s a secret ballot affair the football is spherical — it can take any direction. Meaning, anything out of what one might think is obvious can happen.

Let the two teams go out there for the love of the game and give us a good match. But my money is on Tsholotsho FC not embarrassing the multitudes that would have made the trip to Bulawayo.