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’LANDERS HIT BULL’S EYE

04/11/2014 02:57:00 Lwazi's Pandora's box

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THE ‘BULL’ DANCE – Mbabane Highlanders players celebrate one of the four goals they scored in their 4-1 victory over Moneni Pirates on Sunday at Somhlolo National Stadium. (Pic: Nsindiso Tsabedze)

My dearest readers... Great events shape the lives of institutions and those who are part of them. The Chinese are still affected by the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Scots by the Culloden. To bring things to football perspective, England’s Liverpool are still affected by the Hillsborough disaster, Italy’s Juventus by the Heysel; England’s Bradford City by the fire and closer home, Orlando Pirates and that other Soweto club, by the Ellis Park disaster. These terrible events become part of the way people see the world. We are all, to an extent, defined by the terrible events we survive and experience.

After the sad and traumatic relegation of Mbabane Highlanders, the country’s real football aristocrats, two seasons ago, it was a watershed moment and one that will be told like a fairytale from one generation to another.

I had told myself I would avoid writing about Highlanders’ revival in this state-of-the-nation football address, where we liberate local sports one Tuesday at a time, because for two consecutive weeks, ‘Inkunzemnyama’ have dominated this page. I had the fret I was starting to sound like a stuck record. But what can one do when a team is in such a rich vein of scoring form? How can you avoid such a subject of the return to the pinnacle of Swazi football, which ultimately gives the league a good-feel-factor, of a team that seemed to be on the way to oblivion? How can you not pay tribute to Highlanders boss, Bheki ‘Rubber’ Simelane for withstanding all the storms, unfair criticism by those with poisonous pens and all evil forces at play?

Even a friend of mine says I am starting to sound like a Highlanders fan these days. Well I am not – I am a born Sihlangu fan – but this column will not give up its proud tradition of bold reporting and laying out the truth in its most naked form. I owe this to the more than 100 000 people whose weekly diet this column/newspaper is.

That’s why even this morning I want to pay tribute to Mbabane Highlanders for giving our football something to shout about. I have always said and I will say it again, a raging Highlanders, a high-flying Mbabane Swallows and ‘Weslians’ in ‘Wanderville’ are good for our football. These three clubs are the mainstay of Swazi football. Their place in history is written in iron ink and secured.

The clubs many love to hate – the armed forces sides – may win trophies by a bucketful but everyone can attest they bring little vibe, if any at all, to the football table. Their celebrations start and end during the prize presentation ceremonies. With the excitement we have seen each time Highlanders and Wanderers win a game these days, imagine if these two giants of local football were to win a major trophy? Imagine Highlanders or Wanderers winning a Treble or a quadruple like Leopard did last season?

I am certain celebrations would last for the whole year! Our football is yearning for such scenes and this weekend’s results in the MTN League surely showed us glimpses of what local football is missing if the three teams were on the ascendancy. Highlanders’ resounding 4-1 victory over comatose Moneni Pirates, coming at the backdrop of a 4-0 victory over RSSC United barely a week ago, proved once more that the tide always turns when it is at its lowest ebb, as Norman Nel once wrote in his book: ‘Never Give up on your dreams’.

That the ‘Black Bull’ has achieved the unthinkable – snatching four wins in a row to be on top of the pile is testimony that you must never allow yourself to be influenced by the doom and gloom that is popularly advanced by soothsayers and cynical critics driven by their own selfish agendas, because indeed, the gloom of today is invariably the boom of tomorrow.
If the Highlanders management had spent their time listening to all the critics and trying to please all the soothsayers, the team would be languishing at the bottom of the log ready to make a U-turn to the First Division league.

They did not. Instead they knuckled down to business, brought back the South African players, whom I am told were influenced to leave the club, and this has paid dividends. In experienced South African striker Ayanda Lumkwane, Highlanders have a new ‘Massoye’ (remember the free-scoring Cameroonian striker who scored goals for fun in the colours of Mbabane Swallows). Like Massoye, when he came to these shores, Lumkwane does look to be on the Indian summer of his career but his experience, poise, composure and panache is already proving too classy for local defenders.

His off-the-ball runs and anticipation certainly puts him head and shoulders above his peers. Granted, Moneni Pirates were disjointed and disoriented but I doff my poor man’s cap for Lumkwane’s acrobatically scored headed goal on Sunday. I have not seen a headed goal like this one since Malawian-born striker Petersen Kaira scored one for Wanderers against self-same Highlanders many years ago. It was so sweet it could have been eaten for supper!

Lumkwane now has five goals under his belt and boy, all five goals are not just your grandma tap-ins. They all can contend for the ‘goal of the season’, if we had any. Yes, there is a lot to say about our football seeing a team like Highlanders on top. The truth is, they are not a finished product: they are a work in progress.

They have a lot of flaws, especially in defence, which has more holes than Swiss cheese. Highlanders’ defence provokes pity in counter-attacks and it is only the outstanding defender, Baimba Kamara who is working his socks off with timely clearances and excellent reading of the game.

Some commentators, rightly so, may point towards a very weak league or the standards having dropped but on the flip side, it may be an indicator of a very open and competitive league. As things stand, from Malanti Chiefs with seven points right up to Highlanders on 15 points, all stand a chance of winning the E250 000 first round winners cheque. So, we have nine teams capable of winning the first round prize and with four games to play, there is everything to play for.

On Saturday I watched the inaugural winners of the E250 000 first prize cheque, Mbabane Swallows firing blanks against a stubborn Manzini Sundowns who had parked a double-decker bus to earn a valuable point. The ‘Birds’ were left frustrated as Sundowns’ defensive approach saw them play their second goalless draw of the season. Swallows coach Aaron Mavimbela was at pains explaining how Sundowns’ defensive approach frustrated his team but the attack-minded Swallows must brace themselves for such tactics and find a strategy to break down the opposition defence. As Sundowns coach Musa Mamba rightly observed, they could not risk playing an open game against – in his own words – ‘the best counter-attacking team in the country’.

Manzini Wanderers, after a tumultuous week in which a petition now disowned by the supporters called for the suspension of the Managing director and Management Committee, leading to the team not training for three days, were still able to steam-roll over a timid and disappointingly below par Manzini Sea Birds. History has taught us things do get acrimonious before they become amicable at the ‘Weslians’ camp, but for me it was more of how disjointed, disoriented and disillusioned Manzini Sea Birds were than any brilliance on the maroon and white outfit’s side. If anything, Wanderers should have scored an avalanche of goals than the three they managed on the day. Striker Sidumo Shongwe could have helped himself to five goals but he missed when it looked easier to score.

With such a colourless display, I am not shocked the Mpendulo Ngwenya-led side is all at sea at the bottom of the log with one win in seven games. With such torturous performances, if truth be told, they do not deserve to be in the Premier League division. Defending champions, Royal Leopard continue to be in stuttering form and have since been dislodged by Highlanders at the summit of the log, which has added spice to an already succulent stew in the form of the E250 000 first prize cheque. Green Mamba’s tremendous come-back 3-3 draw against Red Lions also set the tongues wagging. So who will take the first prize cheque home?
The battle has just begun...