‘This is not football’. . . George Mbwando shocked by slump in standards HARD TALK . . . Former Zimbabwe international, George Mbwando, shares his views on domestic football, from the Premiership to the Warriors, in a chat with The Herald in Harare yesterday GEORGE MBWANDO on Saturday watched his first domestic Premiership game in a very long time and was shocked by the sharp decline in the quality on the field and the huge empty pockets in the stands at the National Sports Stadium. The 37-year-old retired footballer, who was partof the Warriors who featured at the 2004 and 2006 Nations Cup finals, is back home from his base in Germany to supervise his Football Against Aids project that he runs together with his former teammate, Edzai Kasinauyo. Mbwando was at the National Sports Stadium on Saturday for the Battle of the Cities showdown between Castle Lager Premier League championship race leaders, Highlandersand CAPS United — one of the biggest matches in the domestic top-flight league. Yesterday, Mbwando told The Herald that he was surprised at the dramatic slump, in terms of quality delivered on the football pitch, in thatgame and it left him in a soul-searching exercise to find out what was really going wrong with our football. Matches between CAPS United and Highlandershave a tradition of producing thrillers and none better than the seven-goal feast, at the same giant stadium, when Bosso ended the Green Machine’s lengthy unbeaten run in an unforgettable 4-3 victory in 2004. That was the only match that Charles Mhlauri and his immortal Green Machine lost, all season, in a campaign in which they were unbeaten away from home and that match came at a time when Zimbabwean football wason a high with the Warriors playing at their maiden Nations Cup finals that same year. There was quite a significant number of foreignplayers, on the books of Zimbabwean clubs, back then and those who managed to make thegrade at the big teams like CAPS United and Highlanders brought a lot of quality and made ahuge difference. In that classic, nine years ago, two Zambians —Dabwitso Nkhoma and Laughter Chilembe — made a big impact and scored with the former, who became a huge favourite of the Bosso fans, getting one goal for his team while Chilembe curled home a beauty of a free-kick. There wasn’t even one foreign player, in the line-ups of either CAPS United or Highlanders, at the National Sports Stadium on Saturday with the only foreign flavour being provided by Highlanders’ coach Kevin Kaindu. Mbwando said he went to the stadium expecting to see the best that domestic football could produce, given that this was a contest between the leaders in the championship race and one of the biggest teams in the country, but reveals that he felt a little bit disappointed by what he saw. CAPS United edged Highlanders 2-1, their first league victory over their rivals in three league meetings after losing both matches last year, and the win took their fans back memory lane to that day, two years ago, when the Green Machine hammered Bosso 3-1 in a league match at Rufaro. Goals by Dominic Chungwa and substitute Leonard Fiyado’s cheeky late strike gave the home side a victory their efforts, on the balance of input, certainly deserved although the visitors will feel aggrieved that the winning goal came after Fiyado had strayed into an off-side position. Fortune appears to always favour the brave andthe Green Machine certainly rode a fair dosage of their luck, on an afternoon where they played with spirit, and Milton Ncube’s curling free-kick crashed against the crossbar, when the scores were still tied 1-1, in what could have been a game-changing moment. Mbwando, a neutral who never played for any of the Big Three — Dynamos, CAPS United and Highlanders — and grew up in a Green Machine-supporting family, said he expected tosee more from two of the country’s biggest three football clubs. “When you look at the quality of the matches that we used to play and that we used to see being played here, and you compare that to what I saw on Saturday, there is a big difference and I can say that it was a bit disappointing, as a neutral, because you want to see more quality in such a big game,” said Mbwando. “It looks like a totally different game from what we used to play or watch here. “Maybe, this is another generation altogether and things have changed, the coaches have changed, and the game is now being played differently but I hoped to see some players taking matters into their hands to try and dictate the pace of the game but I didn’t see that. “In such big games, during our days, that was when the real heroes like Memory Mucherahowa and Joe Mugabe stood up to be counted and they took control of the game, dominated it and gave everything for their team. “These were also the games when the new players really made a big mark and they would go out of their way to make sure they made an impact but, from what I saw on Saturday, no one was ready to do that, and it’s a bit disappointing. “When we can’t play properly at our clubs, especially these big clubs that traditionally have the best players in their line-ups, then we can’t play properly even as a national team andwe all have some serious work to do to get our football right once again.” Mbwando said both teams appeared in a hurry and the game could not flow, as well as it should, because there was a tendency that once one player got the ball, he appeared desperate to pump it forward. “Maybe, it’s the tension of the big occasion but I tried, throughout the match, to count four clean passes that were completed and I couldn’t get that from both Highlanders and CAPS United,” said Mbwando. “If we can’t pass the ball then we can’t win matches in today’s football.” Something else caught Mbwando’s attention. “I was shocked by the small crowd for such a big game, I didn’t expect the stadium to be full but I have to say that I expected to see far more people in the stands than what I saw there,” said Mbwando. “This then brings in the question — ‘Are we losing our fans, is the game turning now turningits fans away from the stadium?’ “Yes, the state of our football right now isn’t good and that has an effect on the fans but a CAPS/Highlanders game has also been one of the very big games from our time as kids and I was left with a lot of questions on Saturday. “To the credit of those who were there, they had a lot of life, they were singing and they were cheering their teams on and you can see that the passion is still there among our fans but we need the numbers at the grounds and we all have to work to bring the fans back. “Football can’t survive without the fans.” Mbwando said he has detected that Zimbabwean football was alive and healthy, onthe social media forums, but that enthusiasm has to be taken from those Facebook pages to the stadiums if there is going to be real growth in the game. “The game is thriving on the social networks and what we can tell from that is that it has a following, a big one, but are we tapping into that following so that it can make a difference in terms of the growth of our game?” said Mbwando. “We need the fans at the stadiums but to do that we also need to give the supporters something that will be appealing to them and the quality of the football that the players deliver on the pitch needs to be better. “I think it will not happen overnight but we just can’t give up because this is our game and we know that we can change things if we all put our efforts into it, everyone playing his part.” Tomorrow, George Mbwando talks about the Warriors, junior development, what he intends to do to make a change to a game that gave him everything.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 05:31:24 +0000
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