FOREIGN SHARP-SHOOTERS TO DECIDE CAF CLASH

Hammering goals home is the essence of the game; how they are scored is the soul of soccer and how they are celebrated is the culture of the game.

 Granted, football is a team sport – even pea-brained soccer analysts tell us this a gazillion times – but sometimes one player takes the initiative with a brilliant piece of skill, to send the emotional owners of the game into bouts of ecstasy on the terraces as the opposition goalkeeper is left sprawling on the turf and the net bulges.

You cannot attach any price to the sheer unbridled joy that a goal brings to the fans on the terraces. That’s why that Spanish midfield Rolls Royce, Sergio Busquets reckons football is better than sex. I agree wholeheartedly. “In football, happiness lasts three or four days,” he said on El Hormiguero.  “Sex, on the other hand, can last just one minute!” said the FC Barcelona midfield maestro.
Consider this; on Saturday when the clock strikes 3pm, Mbabane Swallows will play their biggest game since they first participated in the CAF Inter-Club competitions in 1987.

It’s a must-win game against the ‘Zegalacticos’ of Zambia in the CAF Champions League Group D penultimate clash with far reaching consequences. If George Landamina’s charges beat Swallows on Saturday, they will mathematically bounce back to quarter-final contention as they would have accumulated five points. Anything less than victory for them, the journey in the premium inter-club competition will come to a juddering halt.

For Swallows, a loss would be disastrous but not totally ruling them out as it would all depend on how Angola’s Club Desportivo 1 de Agosto fare against run-away leaders, Tunisia’s Etoile Sportivo du Sahel on the same day. A draw or a win, would also mean Thabo ‘Koki’ Vilakati’s battalions’ dream of quarter-final is not over yet. They will live to see another day irrespective of how the Angolan side play against Etoile in the other Group D clash set for an 8pm kick-off time at the artistic Olympique de Sousse Stadium at the North African country.

Victory for Swallows will ensure it’s all in their hands, especially in the last game against Club Desportivo Agosto away at the 11 Novembro Stadium in Luanda on August 28.
 Two players from the two teams, ironically strikers – and foreigners too - are highly to be the determining factor in Saturday’s must-see clash. Below we profile the two stars who will be leading the attacking forays for the two teams, who have made an equal six number of appearances in this CAF inter-club premium competition.

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