It’s like football’s version of a reality television show, something like Big Brother Warrior or Keeping Up With The Pagels Cephas Chimedza took me down memory lane this week to our visit to Conakry, exactly five years ago, for a 2010 World Cup qualifier against Guinea. The flight from Johannesburg to Dakar, Senegal, was quite adventurous and once the other passengers on the SAA Airbus A340 passenger jet had picked out the team’s identity, it triggered an in-flight auction of Zimbabwe dollars. Hyperinflation had destroyed the value of the Zim dollar and, back then, we carried Z$100 000 notes and, for the huge contingent of other travellers on that flight, who were flying to the United States, just laying a hand on that note was priceless. This was the winter of 2008, it was all gloomy, annual inflation was 213-million percent, prices could change twice, or even more, in just a day and there were quite a number of us who hid away from their identity, too weak to carry the baggage of the struggle, too smart to carry the mud of the battle. Most of the passengers were genuinely surprised that, against the background the severe challenges that were weighing down our economy, we still could afford to send a national football team across Africa to compete for a place at the World Cup. Our optimism that we would survive the storm, our courage to confront it rather than run away from it, our pride in identifying ourselves with Zimbabwe, as the best country in the world even in this darkest hour, to stand for it and battle for its World Cup cause, won us scores of friends. Some of them must have been genuinely disappointed that we disembarked in Dakar, they must have had loved to hear our heroic tales of defiance for the last leg of the flight across the Atlantic into New York, but we had to heed our call to fulfil the World Cup mission in Conakry. It was Valinhos’ first match, in charge of the Warriors, and if he thought this would be a retreat to an African safari, he quickly realised this wasn’t the case as we spent the remaining hours of the night sleeping on the hard benches of the airport in Dakar and, on arrival in Conakry we were subjected to some rough treatment. But, as Chimedza reminded us this week, the Warriors battled long and hard during the match, against an inspired opponent led by France-based talisman Pascal Feindonou, and were full value for the point they earned in a goalless draw that was a very explosive affair. “In 2008, we drew 0-0 with Guinea, in Conakry, the first points they dropped at home in years,” Chimedza wrote on his Facebook page this week. “This was after sleeping at the airport in Senegal and spending half a day waiting for accommodation tasvika in Guinea. “We were not the best of teams but we had fighters, experience and commitment. I don’t see the same in the current team. It’s like vangori happy to be called Warriors. Come on guys! Show us some balls.” As Cephas took me down memory lane this week, complete with sights, and even sounds of their West African adventure, including the battle song they sang on the way out of the September 28 Stadium in Conakry, “Zimbabwe inyika yedu; Ngatitambe bhora vanhu vasekerere; Kana tafa vasaticheme toenda tega; Pahukama,” I couldn’t help but just smile. We didn’t know it then, but we do know it now, that Valinhos and his men became the second group of Warriors to begin a World Cup campaign, in foreign territory, with at least a point. And while they had not matched those who went to Bangui and took all three points, in a 2-0 win over Central African Republic on March 21, 2000, their courageous show in Conakry was a landmark performance. Five Years Later, We Back In Conakry Tomorrow, the Warriors have another World Cup battle in Conakry and it’s a dead rubber - they have lost three of their four qualifiers, including two successive matches at home at this level for the first time in their history, and they have only a point to show for all their troubles. Last Sunday, the Warriors took 10 steps backwards, after having taken five steps forward in Alexandria, as we were torn apart by the Pharaohs of Egypt, conceding four goals for the first time in our backyard in a game of this magnitude. Having given their fans a reason to believe in Klaus Dieter Pagels’ project, with a brave and stylish performance in Alexandria, the Warriors planted seeds of doubt in the minds of their long-suffering fans again, with a performance of severe defensive frailty, and were taught a good lesson about the challenges of international football. The Warriors charmed a section of their fans, no doubt about that, with the way they tried to play a simple, passing game, and for those who believe in Pagels’ project, this was yet another public demonstration of the giant strides that their team is taking, under the tutelage of this German coach, in a revolution they believe will open a window of success. It’s easy to fall for Pagels’ project because the football that he is trying to impose on his team is beautiful, eye-catching, flowing on the occasions the boys get their rhythm and has an identity. It’s something that we have seen from some very successful teams in recent years, teams that have dominated the Champions League and won the World Cup and European Cup, teams like Barcelona, teams like the Spanish national football side. Those who believe in him will argue, with justifiable reasons, that it’s too early to judge his project and he deserves to be given more time, and support, to impose his ideas on the players and, in a year or so, we will start seeing a very competitive and stylish Warriors. That Pagels has invested a lot in some young players - Denver Mukamba, Partson Jaure, Khama Billiat, Knowledge Musona, Devon Chafa, Tafadzwa Rusike, Abbas Amidu, Lincoln Zvasiya, Archford Gutu - all helps to give those who believe in him the comfort, and promise, that tomorrow will bring a better day as these boys mature and grasp his gospel. The people who see a light, in Pagels’ project, will tell you those that are criticising the coach are hypocrites because, suddenly, they have begun to behave as if the Warriors have been qualifying for every Nations Cup and doing so well, in terms of the World Cup battles, they were just unlucky to keep falling on the final hurdle. These people are knowledgeable, and they know that the one and only time that we fell on the final hurdle, in our quest to qualify for the World Cup finals, was during that incredible show by the immortal Dream Team, a good 20 years ago, when Reinhard Fabisch and his brave men were our football ambassadors. While the critics see four goals that we leaked on Sunday, the guys who believe in Pagels see schoolboys defensive errors, which can be refined with some panel-beating with time, and what was important to them was how we played the game, how we expressed ourselves and, crucially, the promise, for a better tomorrow, that was delivered. To these guys, a win over Egypt would have been a bonus, a draw or a victory in Guinea tomorrow would be a bonus, they have embraced the revolution and they know it comes with a number of setbacks and losing some games is part of the learning process. But those who are questioning Pagels’ project also have a right to be heard and a right to raise alarm, after seeing something they had never seen before in their backyard, with their Warriors conceding four goals in a chaotic defensive display that was, at best, amateurish and, at worst, suicidal. They have a right to ask how possible it is for one man, in this case Pagels, to come here and try and introduce a new playing style, right at the top of our football tree, when all the other branches, the national youth teams and the clubs, are all playing ping-pong football? Where should such a revolution start, at the top or at the bottom? The schools would be a good starting point, for a country that seriously needs a football revolution, and not the national team - a team whose players only train together, at most, for just four days, who only play about four games a year and who play in high-stakes games which should never be used for experiments because they don’t provide a second chance. Those who are questioning Pagels’ project have a right to be concerned because, in terms of the man who is spearheading it, we don’t have a precedent where he has done such a project, at such a level, and there was a success story that came out. Pagels is using the Warriors as a pilot project, it’s the first time that he is doing it at this level of the game, he doesn’t know if it will be successful because he has never done it before, there is no precedent for him to fall back on when his defence turns into sieve as was the case on Sunday, there is no practical model for him to rely on to provide the remedy. Everything that Pagels is doing is experimental, and therein lies the big challenge, because he has never done it at this level before, he has never managed a team of this magnitude before, he has never coached players for such assignments before, he just hopes that it will work, there is no template for him to refer to where it worked for him in the past. In Alexandria, he took charge of his first World Cup game, in Harare on Sunday, he took charge of his first home World Cup game, in Conakry tomorrow, he will take charge of his first World Cup game in West Africa, and all the baggage that comes with playing on that part of the continent, and when he comes here he will take charge of his first World Cup game, against Southern African opposition, in the dead rubber against Mozambique. Pagels doesn’t know how failure feels like, at this level, and you have to forgive him if he feels that a 2-4 home defeat against Egypt is not disastrous and neither does he know how success feels, at this level, and you have to forgive him if he feels that just scoring two goals, against the Pharaohs in a losing cause, is a success story for Zimbabwe football. He has never been in these trenches before, he is also learning, just like the kids that he trying to teach his passing game, and we have a suicidal combination of a coach who is learning the challenges of coaching the game at this level and a team that he is trying to teach to play the football he believes will make them successful at a level he has never coached before. It’s possible for him to be successful, you never know with football Charles Mabika always tells us, and this game has thrown in a number of fairy-tale success stories only a fool will go on top of Mount Nyanga and tell this country this man will turn into a hopeless failure, far worse than the comic Rudi Gutendorf. But it’s all based on hope, just like those fellows stuck on the Titanic after it had slammed into that iceberg and believing that they were told it would never sink, it’s all based on dreams, and the challenge is that there is no one who nursed such a dream, with Pagels calling the shots in that national team, and they came true and the harvest was one of fruits and not thorns. It’s like football’s version of a reality television show, something like Big Brother Warrior, Keeping Up With The Pagels, Zimbabwean Idol, Zimbabwe Has Got Talent, Strictly Come Playing Or Dancing, Who Wants To Be A Warrior, Masterchef Zimbabwe or The Weakest Link. Tomorrow in Guinea we face another tough test and, for the converted, if we lose it’s all part of the learning process, if we win it’s a bonus while for Cephas Chimedza, and others like him, the rallying cry is “Come on guys! Show us some balls”. What Really Is Building A National Team? Two years ago, the Egypt Football Federation dissolved their national team, which had just won the Nations Cup in Angola, and ordered the coach to assemble a young team, of mostly Under-23 players, for all the national assignments. It followed a poor start to their 2012 Nations Cup campaign after a 1-1 home draw against Sierra Leone, a 0-1 away loss to Niger and a 0-1 away loss to South Africa and the Pharaohs eventually finished the race bottom of the group with just one win, a 3-0 home victory over Niger, to their credit. They also failed to qualify for the 2013 Nations Cup finals after losing an elimination tie against the Central African Republic, including a 2-3 home loss to the same team. Two years later, are the Pharaohs still on track, in terms of investing all their trust in Under-23 players, or they have changed course, after being reminded of the tragedy of their emotional decision by their failed 2013 Nations Cup campaign, which has helped them turn everything around again? Today, they sit top of their 2014 World Cup qualifying table, the only team among the 40 African nations in the race to win all their four games, and they enjoy a five-point advantage over Guinea, with just six points to play for and a home tie against the West Africans coming. A look at the Pharaohs team that beat the Warriors on Sunday paints an interesting picture which should give us a clue about the virtues, or the handicaps, of the project that we have decided to undertake in the name of rebuilding our national team. Goalkeeper Sharif Elkramy is 30; defensive rock Wael Goma is 38; inspirational midfielder Mohamed Aboutrika is 35; Ahmed Eid Abdel Malek is 33; Mohmoud Fathalla is 31 and will be 32 in six months time; Ahmed Fathy is 29; Ahmed Shedid turns 28 in January and Hossan Ashour is 27. That’s eight players who are between 27 and 38 years, who were fielded by the Pharaohs against the Warriors on Sunday and their average age, the eight of them, was 31 years six months. Only three players, Mohamed Salah, Ahmed Hegazy and Mohamed Nasser El Nenny were in that Pharaohs’ first XI and under 23 years of age. There must be something that the Egyptians saw, in the past two years, which was fatally wrong about investing the future of the Pharaohs in only the young players and they quickly made changes and brought in the veterans who are about to reward them with a place in the final qualifying round for the 2014 World Cup finals. The difference between them, and us, right now is 11 points. The problem with the national team is that they don’t play as many games, in a year, as might be needed to build a proper team and there are no guarantees that the same coach will be around because, when football leadership changes, so too do the coaches. Interestingly, this week Swedish coach Roger Palmgren quit as coach of the Brave Warriors of Namibia saying that he had received death threats and his safety, and that of his family, could no longer be guaranteed. His record wasn’t poor, in a very tight group, losing 0-1 in Nigeria, beating Kenya 1-0 at home, losing 0-1 to Malawi at home, drawing 0-0 against Malawi in Blantyre, which put his side just four points behind leaders Nigeria, with a home game against the Super Eagles on the way. But some people felt he was a huge flop and they hounded him out of Namibia, that’s what football is in some countries. It’s All Looking Gloomy When you listen to some of our football leaders speaking, you will get an impression that there was darkness engulfing Zimbabwe football between 2007 and 2010 and, only after 2010, did the light start filtering through the dark cloud. But when you see the nightmare that the Warriors have gone through this week, just to try and fulfil a World Cup fixture, it’s difficult to see the light that is shining through the darkness. Cuthbert Dube is away in Brazil and, predictably, the entire Zifa system collapsed in his absence and, as the crisis deepened with the Warriors still stranded, all of the men you see representing Zifa, in this and that, went into hiding. There was no one brave enough to address the nation and tell the football fans what was happening but just wait, there will be a football function soon and you will see them back, in suits or some funny dressing, posing for the television and newspaper cameras. We can spend the next 20 years discussing the merits or flaws of Pagels but, after the nightmare that the Warriors went through this week, you can see that he is just but a small player in a tragedy of gigantic proportions. Maybe, that’s why Cephas Chimedza is reminding us that we shouldn’t forget that they went to Guinea, just five years ago, and came out with a draw. To God Be The Glory!
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 08:23:03 +0000
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