SIHLANGU-MALINTISIS!

My dearest readers ... Here we go again!
Take out your electronic calculators to see if Sihlangu does or does not advance to quarter-finals. How did we get into this messy situation? Oh good Lord, Sihlangu-malintisis is eating us up again!

The rare sickness, Sihlangu-malintisis, which has afflicted our national team Sihlangu Semnikati for close to a decade now, attacked our minds, bodies and souls last night.

This rare sickness, which always leaves us down and out, manifested itself on Saturday night when Kostadin Papic’s boys had to twice come-back-from-behind to force a 2-all draw with Mauritius, a country renowned more of being a tourist destination than a football power-house. This disease reached its devastating levels last night when another 2-all draw against Islanders, Comoros, a country renowned for being the sixth smallest country in the world – with just less than 800 000 souls – sand beaches and dense forests left Sihlangu one foot out of the COSAFA Castle Cup.

If truth be told, it would take the biggest turn around in football, something like – I say this with a heavy heart - a Liverpool miracle at Anfield, for Sihlangu to advance to the quarter-finals. My heart of hearts tells me it is OVER. Sihlangu now need Mauritius and Comoros to play a goalless draw or a 1-all draw to advance to the quarter-finals on a better goal difference. It is too much to ask. It is no longer in our hands. If it were to happen, it would be the football equivalent of climbing Mount Everest on a wheel-chair!

deflating

 After the deflating 2-all draw with Mauritius in which Sihlangu created enough chances to win the game at a canter, one expected a better strategy and approach from the technical bench headed by the experienced Papic. The Sihlangu defence is the squad’s Achilles Heel. It has more holes than Swiss cheese. In the absence of Royal Leopard central defender Machawe Dlamini, shockingly left out of the 23-member squad, Sihlangu central defensive of Banele Dlamini and Siboniso Mamba is like the Riverstone mall entrance, opening up at the mere sight of an oncoming striker. 

On Saturday, the match statistics show that Mauritius only had two shots on target – both of them went in from the boot of striker Ashley Nazira in the 28th and 70th minute. Sihlangu had 18 goal attempts to Mauritius six. We had 51 % ball possession to Mauritius 49% but still could not win the game. Not helped by poor goalkeeping from Mbabane Swallows Sandanezwe Mathabela who clearly has not fully recovered from his goalkeeping howlers in the CAF Champions League with the red and white glamour side. Mathabela has conceded 18 goals in the league this past season while his reserve goalkeeper, Phephisana Msibi from Royal Leopard had only let in 12 goals the entire season. How then Mathabela is selected ahead of Msibi or even Green Mamba’s Thokozani Mkhulisi who not only has kept 12 clean sheets but conceded 12 goals the entire season, beats me.

conundrum

Then you have the conundrum of who plays in midfield. From Saturday’s game it was evident that while we enjoyed a lion’s share of ball possession, we lacked a creative midfield to put in those defence-splitting passes yet we had our international Banele ‘Pupu’ Sikhondze lying idle on the bench. When we needed an equaliser, only then he was put in. He came in and tried to cajole his team-mates with some inter-change of passes.

We created goal-scoring chances in the final ten minutes than we did the entire the first half. One thought the Polokwane City midfielder had done enough to start yesterday’s match. But again he was confined to the bench. To drive my point home the technical bench realised this as they brought him onto the pitch as early as the 31st minute. Wasted substitution in my books!
While luck is an important ingredient of the game of football but they do not say, luck is when opportunity meets preparation!
flatter
So after yesterday’s draw which left us flatter than a can of coke left open for 90 minutes it did feel, at best, truly like coming back to the scene of crime last night or at worst, being forced to confront a guilty secret.
It is a low point in so many ways. It really feels like the 2008 episode under the tutelage of Ephraim ‘Shakes’ Mashaba where the squad exited the tournament without a loss but whose fate was decided by a toss of a coin. We have now gone 11 games without a win in all competitions and Papic is yet to win a game since taking over from you-know-who. Granted, we have seen some huge improvements in terms of playing style and approach. There are some positives we can take including our own Felix Badenhorst equalling Zimbabwean football legend Peter Ndlovu’s eight-goal haul in the tournament but we truly need to find a cure to this rare sickness – SIHLANGU-MALINTISIS!  
It is cancerous, debilitating and weakening. Damn this SIHLANGU-MALINTISIS!

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