The Sunday Mail
Charles Mabika On the Ball
OH, my gosh, the feedback, queries, contributions and ideas from all you lovely “owners of the game” are just awesome, absolutely welcome and fantastic.
I thank you!
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A banner inside Old Trafford last weekend, during Manchester United’s English Premiership match against Norwich City was emblazoned with the following message: “In Giggsy we trust”!
This was in obvious hope and solidarity with legendary Welsh player – Ryan “Giggsy” Giggs – who had just been appointed interim manager till the end of the season after replacing the sacked David Moyes.
And, indeed, the Red Devils clobbered the Canaries 4-0 to give “Giggsy” his debut victory in charge.
Although no banner has yet been written as far as our own Warriors are concerned, I’m pretty sure that the recent national soccer developments in the country would have given rise to a local author inking his or her own banner with the words: “In Dibango we trust!”
Zifa and Warriors head coach Ian “Dibango” Gorowa struck a deal a couple of days ago, when all the anxiety, uncertainty, insinuations and grapevine murmurs were eventually extinguished as it emerged that the former Black Rhinos and Dynamos attacking linkman would be in charge of the “Nation’s No. 1 soccer team” until the end of the 2015 African Cup of Nations campaign.
This revelation was greeted with gusto in and outside the country.
What needs to be done now is for Gorowa and his technical team (as soon as he decides on his lieutenants) to get down to serious business because there isn’t much time before we travel to Tanzania to face Taifa Stars for the crucial first leg’s qualifying encounter.
“Go Warriors Go”!
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It might be early days yet, but it looks like the top-flight league’s title might be heading out of Harare and Bulawayo at the end of the season for the first time since 1967!
Since Castle Lager started sponsoring the country’s premier competition back in 1962 when the now-defunct Bulawayo Wanderers relished “the perfect moment” by grabbing the inaugural title, only St Paul’s, a Musami-based mission team in Murehwa, driven by its late director, Father Arthur Davies (in 1967), no team outside the country’s two largest cities has won it.
Now all that might change if Chipangano – Hwange FC – have their way.
The coalminers catapulted to the top of the standings last Friday after they edged Black Rhinos 1-0 at the Colliery.
Hwange, together with Highlanders and ZPC Kariba, are the only sides still to lose a match this season.
Led by a rejuvenated and mercurial Rodwell “Mido” Chinyengetere, Chipangano have been in imperious form since the start of the season – their best start for over a decade.
If a team can wallop Luke Masomere’s well-drilled soldiers by five goals to one; then proceed to melt the platinum miners at Mandava 3-2; matches mighty Highlanders blow-for-blow in a 1-all draw at “Fortress Emagumeni”; doesn’t get carried away by all the flattering compliments to eke out a draw at their Colliery’s hunting yard against slick-passing Triangle United and then take an appreciative bow for its cheering home fans with that priceless triumph over a super-fit Rhinos contingent, you just have to look up and notice, hey?
The long wait for this success-starved coalmining town might be over. Did I hear somebody echo: “Rome wasn’t built in a day?”
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I really stuck my foot in this time around, didn’t I? My word, the emails, whatsApp texts, phone calls, etc, I’ve been receiving from Real Madrid fans are just mind-shattering!
Remember, I had, for the past two weeks, maintained that Cristiano Ronaldo and his entourage would not get past Bayern Munich in the second leg of the European Champions League semi-final at the Allianz Arena despite carrying a 1-0 lead from the first home leg? But, boy, oh boy, what an annihilation it was for the Bavarians as Los Blancos ran out 4-0 winners.
A priceless double from defender Sergio Ramos and another double from Cristiano Ronaldo carried the day for the Spanish side. CR7 became the first man to score 16 goals in a European Champions League qualifying season’s campaign.
I did get the other half of the prediction jigsaw puzzle correct though when I maintained that Los Colchoneros – Atletico Madrid – would build a bridge over the troubled waters of the Chelsea Blues at Stamford!
But, hey, who said I give up easily?
Of course, I don’t because I will stick to my guns and maintain that of the two Madridistas, the red and white army, which has been irresistibly built by Argentina’s animated gaffer, Diego Simone, will grab their first European Champions League prize on 24 May in Lisbon! And, still on those two unforgettable semi-finals, here is a remarkable and local comeback story that was recounted to me a couple of years ago by two Dynamos legends – former striker Freddy “Karamba” Mkwesha (now the club’s board advisor) and their late midfielder, Alois Meskano. Do you still remember that at one time during the Bayern Munich v Real Madrid tie last Tuesday night, with the Germans trailing 2-0, they needed three goals with 70 minutes remaining to win the match?
Do you also remember that at one time during the Chelsea v Atletico clash 24 hours later, with the Blues trailing 3-1, they needed three goals with 18 minutes remaining to win the match? Well, back in 1966,according to Mkwesha and Meskano (and this story was also later confirmed by two other former “DeMbare” players who featured in that match – Bernard “Magitare” Marriot (now the club’s board chairman) and Owen “Chanz” Chandamale (club’s board member) – Dynamos met hosts Salisbury Callies, which was an all-white side, in a tension-filled league clash at Callies Ground, in the capital.
Callies scored three goals in a six-minute blistering salvo late in the match and the all-black side was trailing 3-0, with only three minutes to go before a full and stunned Dynamos-dominated crowd.
But, out of the blue, a miraculous fightback! In those 120 seconds DeMbare forced a share of the spoils through a Mkwesha brace and another effort from the late Jimmy “Daddy” Finch.
Unbelievable, hey?
We surely live and learn!
Remember to take care of your loved ones and each other. Till next week, it’s bye bye for now!
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