ROBSON SHARUKO: Thank God, the Harare Derby is back with diamonds at stake

Africa, is the dirtiest, ugliest, poorest, most old-fashioned city that I have ever visited on my tours of duty around the world.
Seven years have passed since my visit to Nouakchott, with the Warriors’ Class of 2003, but images of the city’s filthy beaches on the Atlantic, dusty streets in the central business district, the run-down buildings and donkey drawn carts that were used as taxis, have stubbornly refused to leave my memory bank.

There were times, during our brief stay in Nouakchott, when I really felt that time had left this city, and its people, behind and whatever the life that was going on there was possibly what the world was sometime in 1820 or thereabout rather than in 2003.

It was the first time that I came face-to-face with people, just sitting on the dusty street corners, with flies covering their faces and they didn’t only look helpless but it was clear that life had long lost its meaning to these individuals.
You got this feeling that this was a cursed nation, incredibly hot during the day you could barely walk out of your hotel room, and unbearably hot during the night, sleeping virtually became a nightmare.
That a huge swarm of locusts swept across Nouakchott, shortly after we had left the city, and destroyed all the leaves and the little grass found in the city, including the entire field of the stadium where we had played our World Cup qualifier, buttressed my belief that this was a doomed nation.

The stadium was just one of two football grounds in the entire country.
Mauritania has seen everything since then, from coups to severe droughts and, of course, chattel slavery – the owning and trading of humans – still exists in that country with some Arab-Berbers having slaves in the form of indigenous African tribes.

While Mauritania touched me with its grinding poverty, it also marked a turning point for me in terms of how a people, no matter their circumstances, can be overwhelmingly nationalistic and derive so much pride in their nationhood.

In their national football side they found a symbol of hope, even when it was apparently clear to them that the team was very weak, had never come close to qualifying for the Nations Cup or World Cup finals and its top league, the Premiere Division, was the only league in the entire country.
Against all these odds, where only 12 clubs played organised league football in the entire country, the people of Mauritania still found reason to believe in their national team during our visit and you got this feeling that an entire city had been hit by a bug that had made them go crazy about the Mourabitounes – as the team is affectionately called.

All the old cars on the dusty streets appeared to be flying the national flag, now and again programmes on local television would be disrupted by messages and images rallying the people to come out and support their team, the taxi drivers spoke about nothing but the game and, when we visited the dirty beach, we were surprised by the massive interest the women and children had in the game.
The little fishing boats, and there were scores of them, were all flying the national flags and even the guides of the donkey-drawn carts, which dominated the roads, all seemed to be wearing the national colours.

We had beaten Mauritania 3-0 at the National Sports Stadium in the first leg of that World Cup qualifier and, in many countries, such a result would have diluted interest in the reverse fixture but the Mauritanians surprised us by how bullish they were and, together as a nation, they pushed an average group of footballers to go the extra mile.

Yes, against all odds, Mauritania – a desert country of roughly three million people, with only one football league and a dozen clubs, whose national team was at best a joke and at worst an endless nightmare for a nation that wanted so much but always got very little in this game – beat the Warriors 2-1 in Nouakchott.

This wasn’t a Mickey Mouse Warriors’ side but Sunday Chidzambwa’s Warriors’ team, the Golden Generation that had finally ended our lengthy wait for a place at the Nations Cup finals, the boys who had become the toast of the nation by clearing that final hurdle.

George Mbwando scored the goal that ended Mauritania’s hopes of a major upset but not before the bubbly home nation, inspired by the noisiest support I have heard inside a football stadium, had taken a 2-0 lead and not only sent shivers into every Warrior but given their nation reason to believe that their trust wasn’t entirely misplaced.

There were some huge lessons for us on that trip to Mauritania and one of them was that a united nation can certainly move mountains, be it in football or in other challenges in life, and you don’t need to be rich people, to find pride in your nationhood, and once everyone goes behind the flag, a lot can be achieved.
Sadly Mauritania haven’t improved, as a football nation, since the last time we were there, and they have certainly moved backwards, they lost all their six 2010 World Cup qualifiers, they withdrew from the 2012

Nations Cup qualifiers before a ball was kicked and they are now ranked a lowly 180th in the world.
But I bet they still find pride in their identity as Mauritanians even if they have one of the worst national football teams in the world.

They have one of the worst countries in the world, one of the poorest countries in the world and all the negativity that has stalked them for some time.


Imagine What We Could Have Been With Unity

Unlike the people of Mauritania, we have a beautiful country, it always rains during the summer seasons, we have land where crops can be planted, we have a decent national football team and decent players who can play in the top leagues in England, France and Germany.
We have played at the Nations Cup finals twice and Reinhard Fabisch almost took us to the 1994 World Cup finals before the Caf Mafia took over the show and helped a useless Cameroon side clear the final hurdle only to be humiliated in the United States where, in one of their group games, they conceded half-a-dozen goals against the old Soviet Union.

But, unlike the people of Mauritania, we are not a united nation and, as much as this might hurt a lot of people, it’s a fact.
Somehow we still view our Warriors in terms of Dynamos and CAPS United.
The DeMbare fans target anyone from Makepekepe, perceived to be not doing well, and the Makepekepe fans also do the same.
So Nyasha Mushekwi is booed by Vietnam, in the match against Mali, even though he is doing his best to hold the line and Edward Sadomba gets the same treatment against Liberia even though he is trying very hard in a difficult role as the lone striker.

We subject our forwards to undue pressure, even before the game has started, and they play their football carrying a heavy load, worrying about the opposition and also concerned that a mistake here and a mistake there could send the home crowd screaming for their blood.

So, our forwards can’t express themselves, the way they do at their clubs, where they play with freedom and the feeling that they are being loved, and Sadomba becomes a pale shadow of the player who is the leading scorer in the African Champions League.

And Mushekwi loses the punch that made him a hit in Super Diski.
We pulled Benjani down, simply because we didn’t know him since he didn’t play for any of the local giants, and every time he came short, we magnified his mistakes and every time he wore that Warriors’ shirt, he felt that he was carrying an extra load on his shoulders.

Just imagine what we could have achieved if we were united behind our team and our players, the way poor Mauritania were united behind their team when we went there, and Sadomba became a Warrior rather than that ex-DeMbare forward and Mushekwi became a Warrior rather than that ex-CAPS United striker?
Why can’t we find the same love, which we pour towards Method Mwanjali who is universally accepted as the leader of the Warriors and is not stalked by his past as a CAPS United stalwart, and use that to help Gilbert Mapemba feel loved by all of us so that he can play his football with a lot of freedom?
If we were a united nation, rather than one that looks at issues in terms of club affiliations and regions, our Warriors would have been top of their group right now and possibly needing just a draw, in their final game against Cape Verde, to go to the 2012 Nations Cup finals.

But we frustrated the system and rather than build on the point that we had got in Liberia, we tried this and that coach, when the coach who had helped us get that point was still available and willing to serve his nation, and by the end of the madness, the Warriors were as confused as the coaches themselves.
Some people hated Mapeza so much that they started leaking all sorts of funny stories that he wasn’t qualified, that he didn’t have O’Levels, that he should have got three rather than one point in Liberia as if it’s that easy when Cape Verde found out recently that even getting a point in Monrovia is a huge task.

So we lost two points against Cape Verde, simply because we lacked the unity to do one thing for our country, and the Atlantic Ocean islanders escaped with a point, when they deserved nothing from the National Sports Stadium, simply because they took advantage of the confusion that was in our camp.
Now you can feel the heat that the vultures are just waiting for Mapeza to fail in this Nations Cup campaign and emerge from the woods, with their spears sharpened, and ready for the biggest feast of the year.
Yes, that is what we are as a nation.

We even hate success because it stops us from pursuing our evil agendas and, in our little and confused worlds, we find relief in the Warriors failing to qualify as long as it settles old scores and gives credibility to some foolish arguments that only a coach with distinctions at ‘O’ Level or one plucked from Europe was good enough for the mission.
Too bad, isn’t it, but that’s what we are as a people.

But God works in a lot of mysterious ways and maybe Norman, and all the good people of this country, will have the final laugh.


Twine Phiri Changing Premiership

The good thing about our country is that not everyone is a bad guy and the good guys outnumber the bad ones probably one in every 1 000 or so.
One of those people who is proving to be a good guy is Twine Phiri, the leader of the Premier Soccer League.

There was a time last year, when the league spent the season without a sponsor for its championship, when a lot of people were beginning to question whether Phiri was the right man for the job.
But he kept on saying that he needed more time in his job, having been elected earlier that year, and told those who cared to listen that things would certainly change for the better.
Now, Phiri and his team have brought Delta Beverages back into the fold and last week, they unveiled the richest knockout tournament in the history of Zimbabwe football with a sponsorship package of US$1 million.

They have retained BancABC, the most loyal backers of the Premiership in recent years, as sponsors of the Sup8r Cup and, for the first time in a generation, we have a tournament – Mbada Diamond Cup – where clubs don’t need to spend even a single cent to participate and players are guaranteed appearance fees.
We have sponsors who are ready to provide free transport for fans in the high density suburbs for them to go to the National Sports Stadium tomorrow to watch the latest chapter of the Harare Derby between CAPS

United and Dynamos who clash at a time when both teams are enjoying good form.
You have to give Twine Phiri due credit for the way he has transformed the Premiership, with a helping hand from Cuthbert Chitima who is always there trying to find the best deals for the league and working in tandem with his boss, and chief executive Kenny Ndebele.

I have always been a fan of Kenny Ndebele because he keeps striking me as a principled man, who works very hard, and he has added real value to the Premiership since coming on board.
Twine Phiri and his team are driving their league forward, with each passing month bringing something exciting, and at this rate, they will have a league that will soon be paying monthly grants to its members so that people like Thompson Dondo can sleep soundly without worrying about where to get US$4 000 every week to run little Kiglon.

Well done Twine and your team but keep working even harder because, as they say at Mamelodi Sundowns, the sky is the limit.
You are on the right track mate.


The Harare Derby Is Back

You get a feeling there couldn’t be a better time for a Dynamos/CAPS United game than now when the two Harare giants, who changed coaches at the same time, are in very good form.
On Saturday I had the privilege of watching the CAPS/FC Platinum game at Mandava and was impressed by the way the Green Machine were organised in defence, were dominant in midfield and kept their shape playing with just one striker, Washington Pakamisa, who held the line well.
The body language was good and they seemed to be playing for each other, rather than for themselves, and there was passion in everything they did that day and the gods would have been crazy not to reward them with a point they clearly deserved.

The star of the CAPS United show was midfielder Edmore Chafungamoyo who ruled supreme in the middle of the park, playing at a very high tempo, and David Rediyoni was also effective while David Sengu commanded his defence very well.
Crucially, the traveling support, with a helping hand from the Shabanie Mine fans, backed their team throughout the contest and, even after they fell behind, they never lost their voice and their belief and seven minutes from time they got their due reward.

Lloyd Chitembwe and his men were feted as heroes, after the game, by delirious CAPS United fans who were happy that, crucially, their team had given it all in this battle and, in doing so, had placed a value on the voice of those who had backed them all afternoon.
I had a feeling, as we drove back to Harare on Sunday, that some of the CAPS United fans at Mandava would probably have saluted their team, even in defeat, for the way that it had battled that day.

So, we arrived at Rufaro for the Dynamos/Saints game and, save for the first 30 minutes when the pressure piled by expectations appeared to be getting the better of DeMbare, the rest was one-way traffic.
Interestingly, in a match when Dynamos didn’t play half as well as they did against Gunners, they still hammered Saints 4-0 and could have scored more on the day with a bit of accuracy in front of goal.
There were four different scorers for DeMbare, which is a good sign for Pasuwa, and while Denver Mukamba didn’t reach the heights he scaled in the three matches leading to the tie against Saints, the sum of the

Glamour Boys’ powers was too much for Chauya Chikwata.
Roderick Mutuma told H-Metro this week that the arrival of Cuthbert Malajila has turned him into a better player and I agree with the young man because his game has grown in leaps and bounds since the load of being the chief marksman was removed from his shoulders.

Dynamos are a compact team and Malajila was just what the doctor ordered while, crucially for Pasuwa, he has a bench that can also come forward and make a good contribution.
If only they can cut some of their showboating, especially Mutuma and Mukamba, then they can inflict serious damage on the opposition.
Given that the sponsors have lined up some free buses to ferry fans to the giant stadium, let’s try and fill the giant ground to capacity, you know, the way they do in the Soweto Derby. Come on guys, we can do it and we have two in-form teams to watch.

Wanted to say ‘Come on Uniteddddddddddddd’ and realised I could be misquoted for backing Makepekepe in this match.
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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