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IS LEOPARD QUADRUPLE CHAMPS-IN-WAITING?

01/04/2014 01:56:00 BY Lwazi's Pandora's Box

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My dearest readers... Welcome back to Pandora’s Box, welcome back to the state of the nation sports address.

After an all-too-brief leave, it’s good to be back inside the Pandora’s Box where there are no holy cows and where the author’s reputation precedes him.

This column is not about me, after-all I am just a lowly newspaperman wearing a poor’s man cap.

The kudos today goes to indefatigable police side, Royal Leopard who are back on football’s top table. They have parked their tankers on the front view sending their detractors into endless groaning and moaning about the armed forces being too bad for local football. This grandson of Mlonyeni will not entertain that skewed debate again. I made my point many moons ago and I haven’t changed my mind yet. It’s a belief I will take to my grave.

It’s a closed chapter to me. Let’s live with it. If anyone dare raises the issue again, I pronounce that may the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of that person and may his/her arms be too short to scratch!
Thank you very much.

Let us agree that this is the season for Royal Leopard - ‘Ingwe Mabalabala’. Under the tutelage of upcoming coach, Sifiso ‘Nuro’ Ntibane, the police have a gung-ho mentality that would leave the ‘Mdodi gang’ green with envy. They play with grit, determination and zeal that has come to define them over the years.

After having the ‘starter’ in the form of the season opener, Swazi Telecom Charity Cup many arm-chair critics, some more acquainted to the smell of alcohol than ink, said it was a flash in the pan. It was dismissed as just a one-day event, which anyone and everyone is capable of winning. This column differed then, signalling that there was a shift in the balance of power in local football. Mbabane Swallows’ Treble winning team will meet their match in the police side who from the onset displayed such a high work-rate, unity and winning mentality that came like second nature when they went on that trail-blazing hat-trick of league titles in 2005-2008 seasons.

When they had the ‘salads’ plate in the form of the Swazi Telecom/Trade Fair Cup in September reaching a cool E1 million in earnings, the neon bright warning signs were there for all to see.
Now having sent Mbabane Swallows packing in astonishing fashion two weeks ago in the SwaziBank Cup semi-final, the police side are right in place to have their ‘main course’ meal in the form of the E700 000 first prize cheque of the richest club competition in the land.

God forbid, after their hard fought 2-0 victory over Manzini Sundowns, which saw them open a four-point lead following Swallows’ 2-1 loss to Manzini Wanderers, the MTN League title is poised to be the ‘dessert’ for Nuro Ntibane and his charges.

I can hear you ‘Mathole Ezinyathi’, ‘Mkhonto Ka-Shaka’, ‘Maweseli’ saying: “You are smoking your socks Lwazi…..you probably spent your leave days trying to replace your blood stream with the finest from the Scottish distillers or your mission to rob Mr Johnny Walker his walking stick has polluted your mind because it ain’t over till the fat lady sings.”
……………”and she has not even cleared her throat.”
challengers
I could be jumping the gun with five games remaining especially with all title challengers and title pretenders, bright and dark horses still to face each other. Leopard still have an unfinished business with Mbabane Swallows, lights or no lights. Dark horses or is it little horse – in the words of one Jose Mourinho – Manzini Wanderers are still to face Royal Leopard, whom they were joined on the hop like Siamese twins in the past weekend against the common enemy, Swallows. Leopard too are still to face Young Buffaloes in the league after the SwaziBank Cup warfare sans guns.
But this is a risk I am prepared to take. I am putting my oval shaped head, which must have inspired the invention of bicycle chairs, on the chopping board.

Here is why: on Saturday, ‘Ingwe Mabalabala’, my green flies on the wall, told me that like they have done all season, didn’t produce a heart-warming performance at Mhlume Stadium but they were still full value for their three points in the 2-0 victory over luckless Manzini Sundowns. There is word for this: CHARACTER. So hungry are their players for the league honours they know sometimes all that matters is a result. That is the stuff champions are made of. On the self-same Saturday, Mbabane Swallows had a chance to maintain the one point difference with the police side. They fell flat on their face to a determined Manzini Wanderers who played as if their lives depended on the outcome of the game and celebrated like they won the league championship itself.

The ‘Birds’ were flatter than a Coke can that’s been left open for a week. They were pedestrian. There is a paragraph for it – lack of character, wrong starting line up and tactics.
The club top brass has reacted like an acid – sending Zambian-born coach, Christopher Tembo packing exactly 70 days after being unveiled on the Monday of January 20.

It may be a knee-jerk reaction but perhaps, as it has happened many times before in their glory seasons, it could be the turning point of the ‘Birds’ season. You can count them out at your own peril. They have what former Crystal Palace Manager, Ian Dowie calls an amazing ‘Bounceability’, this Swallows of Mbabane.
But this MTN League title is for Leopard to lose. They have the character, which is what separates champions from chumps.

My destabilising Zim Dollar goes to ‘Nuro’ Ntibane and his gang to lift the SwaziBank Cup trophy on Sunday. My gut feeling is that army side, Young Buffaloes have ridden their luck for too long in this tournament and it will finally run out on Sunday before what I am certain will be a capacity crowd.

At round 6pm, a sea of blue and white fans will be the ones on cloud nine and the youthful coach, ‘Nuro’ Ntibane will thank his Almighty God for leading him to the Promised Land – a land of honey and milk.
It will be poetic justice indeed for the Quadruple champions-in-waiting……..