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Writing on a sports blog, Janis B Meredith from the US draws lessons from a movie called Avengers to demonstrate how teamwork brings success.He rightfully points out that any coach can put 11 players together on the pitch, but the fundamental question is are they a team?

If they can attack and defend they are a team, but are they a strong team?

In “The Avengers,” every person on the Avenger team was different. Each had a particular strength. Each had a different personality.

Each had a different history. It’s important for members of a team to understand that, too. Every player needs to know that he doesn’t have to be like everyone else on the team. He is unique and brings his own set of strengths to the game.

A strong team player recognises and accepts differences, a strong team player knows how to play to his strengths, a strong team player fights for a common cause, a strong team player laughs with his teammates, a strong team player has his teammate’s back, and he is an avenger for life.

After last Saturday Bulawayo derby pitting Highlanders and Chicken Inn, when the referee blew his final whistle, I saw a group of reporters swarming coaches for the post-match interview, and it ended 2-1 with Chicken Inn winning by the way, and I just said to myself if I was one of them I would have one question for Highlanders coach Bongani Mafu.

My question would have been; “ Do you think you have a football team and if yes, do you think these boys are playing for you?”

It had been long since I had watched such a pathetic Highlanders. From the back to the strike force, everything was just wrong. The young goalkeeper, Takunda Mutanga, was a ball of nerves from the first whistle, and his defenders, who should have given him cover and helped him to settle, were equally at sea, and at the end of the day, you felt sorry for the young man and actually pass a verdict that he did well under the circumstances. In fact, I have come across many Highlanders fans who believe that young goalie will come right.

Then came in captain Felix Chindugwe, who is a pale shadow of a player we saw last season, displaying some shoddy defending and was actually guilty for giving Chicken Inn the opener on a silver platter after losing the ball in the last line of defence. A man falling from Mars would have been forgiven for believing that Chindungwe was playing his first game for Highlanders, in front of that big crowd, as he never imposed himself as an experienced player, and more so as team captain.

There is also something wrong with the Highlanders midfield. Save for Mthulisi Maphosa, who nonetheless, flickers like a veld fire, the rest of the guys never impose themselves on the game. They never take matters into their own hands like boys of yester year would do. Let’s not even go back to days of the golden boys like Willard Khumalo, Rahman Gumbo and Benjamin Nkonjera. You fail to see anyone who would even make it to the bench to the team of turn of the millennium that had the likes of Richard Choruma, Charles Chilufya, Alexander Phiri and Siza Khoza in midfield. You fail to see anyone attempting to take matters into his own hands, someone who wants to stand up and be counted when the going gets tough unlike in the past when the likes of Choruma would run 40 meters taking on one man after the other until they find the priceless goal.

You then look at the strike force, my God, what is happening there? By any standards, Highlanders have the material to keep any defence on toes all day. They have Obadiah Tarumbwa, by far one of the most talented boys in the league. He has the technique and ability to take on defenders, but his last touch is always a big let-down. With better finishing, he would be high up on the goal scorers’ charts because he creates scoring opportunities, he gets past defenders, he receives the ball in awkward positions and has the ability to control the ball but hardly gets it right when he shoots at goal.

The same can be said of his striking partner, young Thomas Chideu. The boy has the idea of what to do with the ball. He controls it well, dribbles well, turns well but his last ball always lets him down. Even winger Gabriel Nyoni uses his speed well to beat defenders. He can also dribble, but after doing all that, his last delivery is not up to scratch, talk of good hand writing but wrong answer.

The anger from Highlanders fans is understandable. Highlanders must do more, and a team like Highlanders should not be easily pushed around, especially at home. You get some kind of nauseating inconsistency if you are a Highlanders fan and wonder really where the problem is because the previous game, which ended 1-1 with Harare City was a different ball game altogether.

Even though they conceded after loose marking inside the box, the likes of Erick Mudzingwa were fighting hard and no one can say they were outplayed by Harare City, who of course are a stronger side on paper than them.

But instead of building on that performance, which saw them salvage a point in the dying minutes because of a never say die attitude, they came back last week a different side, present in body on the pitch but their minds were just somewhere.

No doubt coach Mafu will always be under pressure. He is coaching a big club with a big following where results are expected every day and when that does not happen, fans will demand heads to roll. Nonetheless, there are some instances when you just think there is nothing that Mafu can do, and if you ask fans what they expected him to do when a striker has missed when it looked easier to score than miss, they would say that’s the coach’s problem.

Why did he field that particular player? They will tell you his formation is wrong, they will tell you his midfield is not exciting at all and his defence is always jittery, they will tell you his strikers can’t see the goal. You certainly do not want to be in his shoes now, but his advantage is that he knows the job he is holding and he knows that kind of supporters that he has to deal with every day, so there is no culture shock for him. He knows that once the goals start coming, he will be the “mayor” of this town.

But that can only happen if his players start dying on the pitch for this big club called Highlanders. That can only happen if his players start playing for him as the coach.

That can only happen if the players start believing in themselves. And once they show that they want to die for the club, fans will rally behind them and bit by bit, Barbourfields stadium will again be a Bosso fortress that the world had come to know.

Is that a big task for Mafu and his boys? I don’t think so. But the ball is in their court to be recording on the wrong side of history as that team that turned Highlanders into a laughing stock, or go into the right side of history as men and boys who dusted themselves up after a fall and made their multitude of their fans proud again.

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