One African book talks of a proverb of monkey, that, if it can jump between 2 particular adjacent trees without missing a branch, it deserves to part itself on the back. Generally, monkeys are notorious in stroking each other's scrotum to elevate the ego of the one they seek the favour of. It may not be a bad thing thing given that as human beings, we engage in flattery and even bribes to be in good books to the higher office or the ones that have what we need. Unfortunately, football coaches in Africa live in another world. They are not supposed to be coaching in this world.
In the history of the FIFA World Cup, only Zaire, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Angola, Senegal, South Africa, Ghana, Togo and Tunisia have represented Africa. Tunisia, among others, have done that more than once, besides also winning the African Championship. They are a team in that elite group of giants that no team walks into the field of play fancying their chances to walk off with the result. Few teams have pulled off stunning results and rarely did they achieve the feat twice, and worse still, in succession.
Botswana, at the other hand of the scale, has been regarded as arguably the weakest team in Africa and without much much regard, in the world. But then, with all the foreign coaches and personnel coming in to teach Africans how to do football the African way, not so many administrative people see Africans as workers. Usually, if they do, it is not on professional grounds. After beating Tunisia twice in a row and in one season, Zebras' coach, Stanley Tshosane will not be doing any fellow Africans any favours, as his job is never guaranteed with each sunrise. He is both black and local.
The Zebras maintained their unbeaten run with a 1-0 win over Tunisia in an Africa Cup of Nations match this week with a Jerome Ramatlhakwana's first half goal. They lead the group by 6 points after their total haul of 13 and need a single win to seal the deal. Tshosane is not on celebratory mode yet. His team also dispatched another FIFA World Cup participate in Togo with the same ease, showing how much he had developed the team character and belief.
He has managed to also keep unity and confidence very high in the individual players. His personal attitude has rubbed into the players and his employers, rare as this may be, are better off giving all the support they can for the benefit of the team. It is common that local coaches ask for 3 days camp and end up with the association bring players 30 minutes before kick-off and the expat coaches gets 3 months instead. The same is true with salaries. The expectation is that locals will hike to work and expats will be chauffeur-driven all day. Locals get criticism in winning and their counterparts from outside are not even touched in defeats and miserable performances.
The Zebras' rise is astonishing in more ways than one. The best team to come out of Zimbabwe, dubbed the Dream Team, never reached anything worth mentioning and were labelled 'nearly men' for coming so close in everything under Reinhard Fabisch. To mention Botswana in the same sentence with football felt like a tongue twister. Suddenly, they seem to have qualified for the AFCON tournament without raising much sweat. Considering their technical and tactical ability, they are not really strong. They have not made any impact on the smaller and weaker regional COSAFA Cup for teams in the SADC region. If anyone at this time, is to list a worse team than the Zebras, it suddenly feels like a quantum physics problem in the days of Albert Einstein.
Believe it or not, Stanley Tshosane is a 'quantum physics' student of football from the Brazilian Football Academy in Rio De Janeiro. Coaches do football to unroll their inner selves and fashion their own styles of their understanding of the game. Their job becomes one of using people to act the coaches's thoughts and desires. Other football universities do a great job in teaching coaches to do this, but I have been in the same class with Stanley. He is not a genius in any way, but an applier of the correct systems and theories to practise.
As the Zebras make their debut under the BFA graduate, that is exactly what took the Zimbabwe Warriors in 2004. Sunday Mhofu Marimo Chidzambwa was at the same Brazilian Football Academy years before we were there. So did the successful Barry Daka. It may be a coincidence because other teams did not need mentors from BFA to achieve that feat. If you have one such guy next to you and you want results, pay him and let him do what he wants. It is a sure way to cry plenty, but only tears of joy.
You must remember that Botswana had made visits to Tunisia before with humiliating results. Tunisia also brought the ruthlessness to the Tswanas' home ground years back. While their victories and ways to glory are a case of labouring for the results, a win is a win, especially given the queue of people that have been baying for the blood of Tshosane. Teams sometimes play fantastic football without anything to show for it, and we do not remember those. Results stand the test of time and they will be remembered long after no one is around to testify how bad the match was. More usually, results tend to mould a team into a better unit which jells to a smoother and pretty sight with the test of time. An addiction to victory does not come easy but it can do wonderful things.
Botswana may have booked their place at the AFCON 2012, but they are still to settle the bill with a last confirming win if we do not consider other results. I must hasten to say that they have reached the promised land. For them it, and it will be the coach's hardest time of his career to keep their feet on the ground. Things will not get better in Guinea at the tournament. If players look to enhance their individual prospects of playing overseas than winning the AFCON, the better. They may even spring a few surprises. This may a one year wonder for the Zebras, if the greedy officials start to fight for the bragging rights and start to mud sling each other. African are warriors and this may be a very good excuse for a cool fight. After the fight is over, they will go witch-hunting. In the next life, you can rest assured I will not be African, nor black. I am done with that here.
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