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WE CAN LEARN FROM GERMANY’S TRIUMPH

15/07/2014 04:12:00 BY Lwazi's Pandora's Box

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My dearest readers... Now that the greatest show on earth is over with the grinding German machine flattening everything before it to claim the glittering 6.2kg, 18 carat that is the World Cup trophy for the first time in 24 years, it’s back to reality.

It’s good to be back in the Pandora’s Box after an all-too-brief leave largely spent glued on the big screen watching FIFA’s crown Jewel whilst doing my damndest trying to replace my bloodstream with the finest from the Scottish distillers. But this column is not about me, it is about the game of the billions and how the plucky Germans lifted the trophy courtesy of a wonder strike from youngster, Mario Goetze deeper in Italian referee, Nicola Rizzoli’s extra time. I was shattered.

Never mind that the team I had supported, Brazil, had bowed out disgracefully after the humiliating 7-1 demolition job by the self-same Germans. In my heart of hearts I had rooted for Lionel Messi, that God’s gift to football, to go on and complete his football cycle and put his signature on the final chapter as one of the game’s greatest players.

It wasn’t to be. But not all stories end the way they should be. Messi had a chance to re-write history books but he was left to rue his missed opportunity early in the second half when a lacerating through pass by Lucas Biglia put him through. As England’s Daily Mail’s Chief Sports writer, Martin Samuel, the doyen of the British scribes, put it, it was a proper opportunity too, the type he consumes without blinking for Barcelona. Played in down in the inside left channel by Biglia, Messi suddenly had green space ahead of him.

As many soccer fans can attest, when he is operating at his instinctive best, these chances fly past goalkeepers so fast they hardly hear them, never mind see them. Top corner, near post, is usually a decent bet. Here, though, a fatigued Messi dragged his shot across the goal and wide. It lacked conviction and it was never going in. A goal then and a strangely introverted German may not have recovered. Sadly as it turned out to be, the Germans hauled themselves to extra-time and once they were there, the reserves of energy afforded them by a semi-final stroll against a timid Brazil became apparent. Then Super Mario became a national hero. Even the stunningly beautiful Rihanna, who rooted for Germany, took time to pose for pictures with the German hero.

Germany’s amazing exploits of having played eight World Cup finals, more than any other nation is not just a mere coincidence. Germany is a meticulous developed juggernaut of planning and precision. Their economy has emerged from a tumultuous 20th century in fine fettle despite being caught on the wrong side of two world wars. After their semi-final exit in both 2006 and 2010, they embarked on a study to research how the Spaniards were such a fine football nation and where they got it all wrong. It was a mission undertaken by University students whose findings were adopted by the Germany Football Federation. Eight years later, the Germans are reaping the rewards in the form of the coveted trophy and a E350 million first prize cheque. We can learn a thing or two from the Germans’ World Cup triumph, both as a country and a continent.

15 years since the day Sihlangu reached the semi-finals of the COSAFA Castle Cup with the best generation of youngsters comprising a diminutive Dennis ‘Yuki’ Masina, a quicksilver striker in John ‘Shisa Junior’ Mdluli, the lavishly talented Bongiswa ‘Romario’ Nhlabatsi, free kick specialist Maxwell Zikalala and jelly legged Sibusiso ‘Spoko’ Dlamini, Swaziland is yet to produce another crop of youngsters to match that class of 1999.

Year in and year out, we send new players in our National Under-20 squad for the COSAFA Under-20 Youth Championships led by a new coach. There is no continuity, no data base, nothing. We stage youth tournaments pretending to be developing. It’s not development, it is an event. We are trying short-cuts yet development is a process.

While we stage these youth tournaments under the pretext that we are developing, our Fumblers Association (FA) does not keep the data, there is no progression and no monitoring of the players. As a result, many of the players fall by the side and never reach their peak or the senior national squads. The class of 1999 were a group of players who had played together in many of the junior squads under the then coach, Fritz Seilbea from 1995. Mixed with the experience of Jerry ‘Mbazo’ Gamedze, dearly departed Tholeni ‘Schuster’ Nkambule, Mxolisi ‘Stopper’ Mthethwa, Siza ‘King Pele’ Dlamini, they were a joy to watch. Then we were Kings. 15 years later, we are still basking in that glory. What has the FA done to remedy the situation? What’s the vision going forward?

It’s not just Swaziland’s problem. It is a continental malaise. The performance of our African representatives was overshadowed by chaos related to unpaid match fees and bonuses. The ‘Black Stars’ of Ghana drew gasps of incredulity when their football association claimed, without any hint of embarrassment, that a plane carrying US$3 million would be dispatched from Accra to Brazil to pay the players.

It is, therefore, clear that African football suffers due to poor administration. The game in Africa is led by self-serving, visionless people who rarely put first the players’ interests. As one poet once said, the English invented the game but they can’t play it; The Brazilians play like they dance the Samba and the Germans, well, they are organised, well oiled machine like the cars they make!”
Well, well, then what really is our football style and philosophy?
I rest my case...