Professor Neto Esphezim attacks South African coaches at the SAFCA symposium

I could not believe my eyes when I saw Professor Neto Esphezim, my mentor at the Brazilian Football Academy in Rio de Janeiro in 1999. Together with Carlos Alberto Perreira and Julio Cesar Leal, they formed a formidable team of instructors for the Advanced Diploma on Brazilian Football for Foreign Coaches and Trainers.

Professor Neto humbly introduced himself as an expert of the game with over 60 years of experience working all over the world with associations and Fifa. He has been an instructor of the Fifa since 1978 while sitting in their technical committee.

The Prof allowed for the excited coaches to laugh at the 7-1 before he began a frank address. In a symposium attended by the country’s top coaches from the ABSA Premier League clubs, former Bafana Bafana coaches and junior coaches and legends of the South African game, he began with the state of the Brazilian coaching arrangement.

In their 21 states, with each having an association for the coaches, he explained how their 100 000 registered members obtained police clearances to weed off paedophiles. All coaches worked full-time and earned a minimum of $1,500.00 per month.

He went a level higher to ask how many coaches were in the room. As excited as we were, we raised our hands. He asked who had read a football that day, then that week, month and year. None raised their hands. He barked that loudly with a disappointed voice, how the room was full of imposters.

This was in reference to the Amazulu versus Moroka Swallows match that appalled him.   The biggest problem with that game was the great athleticism and hard running from the very beginning. ‘If you score a goal in the first minute, how do you spend the next 89 running like headless chickens clocking the ball forward like that? When do you breathe and when do you think? Incredible!!’  

Prof Neto authored many books and he informed the audience how he read over 960 football-coaching books in his coaching life. Coaches needed to update their knowledge with changing trends of the game and training methods. ‘You are all nothing.’

He wondered if we could plan and conduct a proper professional training session and even read and analyse the game. H expressed his disgust at what he saw on television. He watched 6 matches during the past week which were fair. He saw something else he never had a clue what it was. He had to ask someone what it was and the answer was that it was ‘soccer’.

That answer proved that he could have never known since he was a football man, and not a soccer man. Already he was addressing the people who coached soccer and not football. The challenge for all to up their game and work professionally was emphasised as the most important aspect for all.

He made this point stronger with an example of single mothers who struggle to make ends meet in poor Brazil. The women prefer lunch boxes for the boys, take them by hand to school, go back to school later to pick them up and head to the football training grounds.

These children feel the need to come daily from training due to their love for the ball. Parents invest money and emotions as these children mean everything to these mothers. However, more often than not, the children drop out of school before even reaching high school to pursue football. What justice is there that these football-loving children end up with coaches who coach them wrongly?

Who would love to bear the conscious of knowing that they have been robbing the children’s future with bad technical and tactical training from inception? The obvious truth is that the human spirit dictates that no effort is spared to equip youngsters with the best ever coaching possible and by the best possible coaches dedicated to the game.

He briefly went through the 2014 Brazil Fifa World Cup Technical Report. African teams played 5 % higher than normal except for Ivory Coast who were below par. Costa Rica and Columbia were 10 % better than normal. The world top nations from Europe and South America played below par.

The African problem remained that of poor mentality and inability to handle pressure. They failed to handle the excitement to qualify to a higher level and collapsed when they needed to be firm. That lack of competence to deal with the pressure of success destroyed the inroads made in technical and tactical improvements.

Chile and The Netherlands were the most productive teams while Algeria and Germany fixture was viewed as the most interesting match of the tournament tactically.    

‘In Brazil, we don’t like football. We are in love with the ball’. He concluded to a huge round of applause.

The future Bafana Bafana coach - African or not, or it does not matter?

Football administrators of Africa, take solace, you are not alone. At the end of the 2014 Fifa World Cup, half of the coaches who took teams there lost their jobs. Some had been with their teams for a long time while others reaped what they never sowed. Noble is the idea that teams look to set up structures leading to the next tournament, Russia 2018.

Look, Germany used the long standing Jurgen Klinsman’s assistant, Joachim Loew as head coach over two Fifa World Cups, seeing his project to fruition. Brazil appointed Dunga as a successor to his predecessor, well almost. Filipe Scolari replaced Mano Menezes whose short stinct followed that of the former captain after the elimination from the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Dunga had replaced Scolari prior to that.

If the Big Phil was not good enough then, what had changed? After that Dunga dismissal for poor performance, what has since changed? Time will tell, but among the 200 milion football crazy population, is there no one with the ability to take them to another level? I thought such impulsive behaviour was patented by Africans.

Given that South Africa will be announcing their own coach at the weekend, one wonders who that lucky guy is. Danny Jordaan speaks the language and I have always admired him and took him as one who walks that talk. SAFA never gave an official list of candidates under considerations and speculation is awash with foreigners.

That can only be security for failure to win the 2018 Russia Fifa World Cup as the championship is ever won by teams with indigenous coaches. In any case, the majority of nations enjoyed better success with home grown coaching stuff.

South Africa’s own records tell the tale, notably the only AFCON victory of 1996 under Clive Barker. Up north, Zimbabwe hired and paid handsome sums to expats, but it took Sunday Marimo in 2004 and Charles Mhlauri in 2006 to take the Warriors to AFCON.

Further north, the same happened with Malawi. TheFlames qualified for AFCON in 1984 under Henry Moyo and with Kinnah Phiri in 2010. Ghana has won the tournament four times, with a local coach guiding the team on all the four occasions.

The most successful football team in the AFCON history is Egypt who won the trophy seven times, mainly with local coaches. Ali Hassan Shehata did so thrice in succession from 2006, 2008 until 2010 when a foreign coach I regarded highly took them to the doldrums. The list of successful stories is endless.

What then makes the non-African coaches attractive given their poor record? They train in the same countries and do the courses that the Africans attend. The course contents are the same and many do not outperform local coaches in these courses anyway.

There is a school of thought that players offer greater respect to foreigners, particularly whites. If true, it means the administrators hiring these coaches subscribe to the same mentality. My observation has been that they are revered by the bosses and whatever these coaches say or need goes. Little attention is given to the requirements of locals. That attitude eats away the respect the players have for the coach.

Players need someone knowledgeable. Their confidence in their coach lies nowhere but in the oozing proficiency of the professional. If the president and secretary of the association take their man lightly, so will the players. As much as the salaries are a confidential issue, the players know. The peanuts that the African coaches get erode any respect the players have for the coach.

One muted idea of having a foreign coach boarded around the respect and fear the African referees have for the whites. If the match officials are that stupid, it could be better to import them from overseas. During a final qualifier between Cameroon and Zimbabwe in Younde, the year 1994, one Reinhard Fabisch got incensed by the obvious biased officiating and tore a $100 bill in-front of the commissioner, earning himself a hefty fine coupled with a suspension.

His white skin could not even earn a draw that Zimbabwe needed to kiss the USA ’94 tournament. The continent has always been encouraged to emancipate itself from mental slavery as none but itself can free its mind. However, the destruction of its football has been its quest for glory and its poverty.  

There is always doubt over the quality of coaches who come to Africa from Europe. They do not make the cut in the leagues that matter, the league where the best of African players ply their trades. It is in these leagues, where the African coaches who believe in their abilities, break the banks and pay for the tuition and flights to acquire the same knowledge, and then come to Africa and remain redundant.

Locally, in Gavin Hunt, Roger De Sa and Pitso Mosemane, Bafana would be well catered for. The South Africa media usually plot the downfall of local coaches, the same way the English destroy their own Three Lions. There are a few more South Africans with the ability to take charge of the team, provided they are armed with the authority to control every detail of the team by the association.

If the continent’s best players can fit in any team in the world, so can the coaches. The world is not ready, and will never be ready to afford an African coach a Manchester United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Juventus job. There shall never be a time in the history of human life when Shakes Mashaba, Riccardo Mannet, Norman Mapeza or Jamhuri Kihwelo will be considered to coach England or Spain. Never.

African associations must bring in extremely qualified and knowledgeable coach educators from abroad to uplift the upcoming coaching and desist from their reliance on the expat coaches. Given that coaches are the most recyclable items on the planet, it may be the joy to pull people down, as results have nothing to do with denying locals opportunities as head national coaches.

The Zimbabwe football is horrible, terrible

The Zimbabwean football is horrible. Terrible. At the beginning of the Castle Lager Premier League season, I went and watched a league match, a third round clash of a team that was runners-up to the champions twice in a row, playing against well-assembled debutants with an experienced coach, at their home-ground. Weeks later, I watched a televised One Wallet Cup matches when the cream of the country battled it out for a health kitty. What a nightmare, and I am not talking about the embarrassing torn goal nets.

It could be that I made comparisons between the recent 2014 Fifa World Cup matches and the Castle Lager League matches in question, but Oh boy! Even then, I watched South African third division matches in between and I could get the sense that the boys were young and amateurish in their approach but tactically mature.

Highlanders, Dynamos and Caps United are the country’s finest. How Mine are newbies but they traded blows with the continent’s best in the CAF championships. First, it was Highlanders and How Mine playing football on a bad pitch. Both teams hit the ball on sight. They ballooned and blasted the ball around to any direction. They ran, huffed and puffed.

One can advocate for such behaviour in the defensive areas, where you are forgiven to believe that anywhere away from the goal is good enough. That type of football tactics in the preparation zone can never be on. Highlanders midfielders failed to control the ball in midfield. They could not pass the ball to the next available person. Off the ball, they never peeled off from their markers to free themselves. Ball control was a big handicap.

The direct ball from the goalkeeper and the defence to the attacking penalty area characterised How Mine’s game. They tried to pick up a tall striker they did not have. Even with very tall Peter Crouch or Nikola Zigic, that type of play in a top league anywhere in the world is illegal. Vision, accuracy, penetration and decision-making were non-existent.

Dynamos and Caps United also played the type of football that Argentina needed to play in Italia ’90 when they had the racing Cladio Canigia. What was positive about Dembare vs Kepekepe fixture was that, they had the strength and condition to kick long and hard. The ball bounced high from the hard and dry ground, and the players jumped and duelled positively to head the ball.

The match lacked the time and space to control the ball and play it on the ground between teammates. That killed all tactical behaviour of both teams and turned into a very tight and competitive kick and run contest. The two teams spent the afternoon with their eyes elevated to the skies looking at the ball, hoping it would drop next to them. Physios must have attended to many neck injuries.

At one point, it was compelling to assume the teams were playing tricks on the spectators and the TV cameras. What bothered that line of thought was the enthusiasm and energy by which that was being implemented.

Playing a match at full speed without much thought in trying to pry open the opposition threw out of the window the concept of football being an invasion game. Armies never approach war that way. Not all weapons are clandestinely tossed with abandon to the enemies.

One great army general of all time, Shaka Zulu, employed in his warfare two famous strategies relevant to the game. His protective shield was long enough to do its job yet being portable. The spear was redesigned to be short enough to stab. This single aspect meant that the war was literally taken to the enemy. The spears were not hurled to the enemy as that restocked enemy resources and arsenal.

Shaka ensured that his army’s inventory after each attack remained intact. The soldiers reported back with a full complement of the shield and the assegai to initiate the next attack. To make his point, he killed his own men, if they lost any or both.

The second well-known tactical set-up of the strategy was the cow-horn formation. Meant to surprise the enemies, he had the front pathfinders who got the attention of the enemies. The right and left wings encircled the opposition and the whole force pressed in from the front middle and butchered them.

That is the exact concept of playing the game of football. The two matches in question never tried to recreate that scenario. That lack of patterns, patience and plan made it a terrible spectacle. There may be factors that influenced the performances. League encounters may be a different kettle of fish when compared to Cup games and tournaments.  

The standard of the game in Zimbabwe may be deteriorating, because I have watched games from that country during the days of Joel Shambo, Stix Mutizwa, Shaky Tauro and Stanley Ndunduma of Caps United. These played found time to juggle the ball under the monitor of tough defenders like Alexander Maseko, Francis Shonhayi and Sunday Marimo. Shakeman scored with ease and accuracy of the highest level under immense pressure.

Highlanders had great players who played excellent fast, passing football in the likes of Willard Khumalo, Makheyi Nyathi, Benjamin Nkonjera and Madinda Ndlovu. Khumalo was known as the galloping General as he shielded the ball, galloped twice or thrice before making an incisive pass. Dynamos played with great confidence when they had Memory Mucherawowa, Clayton Munemo, Kenneth Jere and the like. They ran rings around teams and controlled matches at will. It may not be fair to make that comparison given that it was a different era, but from that point on, one expected ascendancy.

Zimbabwe has the best quality of players in Central and Southern Africa. The individuals are well groomed and motivated to perform, though not as cultured as the Zambians and the Congolese. That is why from George Nechironga, Gilbert Mushangazhike, Benjamin Mwariwaru to Tinashe Nengomashe, Ezrom Nyandoro, Knowledge Musona and Cheche Billiart, we have seen the best of Zimbabwean players influencing the direction of the South African football.

What then is the problem of the pathetic showing? Methinks the coaching has gone down. The best left the country for ventures in Botswana, Swaziland and overseas. Others left the game altogether. It is never easy for the current crop of coaches to access the resources to utilise latest technique training and follow tactic trends.

Their game gets amateurish frequently and rapidly as desperate players seek to attract attention for contracts outside the borders by trying to be too individualistic. The dire economic situation means there is no money for anything. The football administration lacks quality leadership as the thin corporate world shuns associating with perceived corruption at club level.

Is there a way out? Maybe not out, but for sure there is a way forward. That country recently held a CAF A Licence that they claimed I could not qualify for, being a foreigner. (CAF is for Africans, which is why Namibia enrolled me for one CAF Licence without all the drama.) The training of coaches brings the level playing ground for all teams as the standardised training and implementation of modern methods serves the league.

The country has to identify the philosophy and style of play to be followed by schools, the youth and the top tier teams. The clubs and their owners need to understand that the ‘winning at all cost’ mentality will never help their teams but will surely kill their football completely. Booting the ball all over the show in fear of playing proper football dries the spectatorship levels in the stadia and television. Sponsors will pull the plugs on the existing deals and those outside will never wish to associate with the game.

Sponsors want to associate with a quality product that consumers appreciate and get attracted to. Unfortunately, players running for the same ball, bumping into each other and falling down after clashes, rising from the fall and then blasting the ball to another set of players to do the same cannot be appetising. It is worse if the ball is completely missed as players hit air balloons.

At the midway stage of the league, the Castle Lager Premier League should be showing signs of maturity with players stepping on the ball, picking up teammates with pinpoint passes, neat overlaps and third man runs. The clear plan to achieve an objective must be there for all to see. Goal creation and intent must obviously be priority at club level before anyone laments about the national team. At least, for now, the league top striker has netted 10 times with 50% of the matches to go.

One South African observer claimed that the cream of Zimbabwean players is in South Africa. That does not hold much water because from my observation, RSA televised Varsity football proved a notch better. Many players in that league play in the SAB League, a division three platform, which is a fourth tier league of the country. Those players are not technical close to the Zimbabweans, but they are tactically superior.

The game is in the intensive care unit and a lot needs to be done there. Albert Einstein once said, 'Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds', but a spade is a spade and let the work begin.

Did Pep Guardiola have anything to do with Germany’s World Cup triumph?

To confuse you further in the debate of the success of Germany in the 2014 Fifa World Cup, I throw doubts in your beliefs about the greatness of one Pep Guardiola. Sunday Oliseh even says that Tiki Taka is alive and sound., a point I greatly dispute. Few claim Die Mannshcaft went through the back door to have Beyern Munich hire Guardiola so he can coach the nine players in their squad to play the Barcelona way.  The theory is noble given that 2010 Fifa World Cup champions, Spain had Pep’s nine players from Barcelona. To the preachers of that gospel, that is not coincidence.

I will take you to the days before the Backlays English Premier League. Nottingham Forest was coached by Brian Clough. Many dubbed him useless as a coach and manager. His team ran on a shoestring budget. He relegated and promoted that team perpetually for over half a decade. He built a team and destroyed it. Built it up and destroyed over and over.

Pepe inherited a Frank Rikjaard Barcelona that was already playing a philosophy set up by Johan Cryuff of Holland. Cryuff introduced the system earlier, the Dutch football that Ruud Gullit tried to employ at Chelsea when he prescribed it as ‘sexy football’. Guardiola did a great job in maintaining a legacy that had lived and will live for many years longer. Those players had been doing the same thing, with a few more foreign contingent than they did with Pep. Rikjaard and Guardiola both played for Barcelona previously.

The former Barca captain took over treble winning Jupp Henynckes Bayern Munich side. The later coached a team left by both Andreas Jonker and Loius van Gaal. The influence of Pep was visible in many Munich matches, and some Germany matches. Prior to Guardiola’s arrival, Bayern dismembered the Spanish giants in the UEFA Champions League, proving their superiority and fluidity. How easy it is to say he brought a wholesome change to the squad and to Germany national as a whole. Both these clubs, Barca and Munich, had funds to buy anyone they wanted, anyone who played the way they loved.

Without much need to compare Jose Mourinho, who won the Portuguese championship and UEFA Champions League with little known Porto, Brian Clough who yo-yoed Nottingham Forest, Harry Redknapp who saved Tottenham Hotspur from relegation and took them to UEFA Champions League pinnacle in a couple seasons, one has to look at the margins of success and the resources. Keeping firm on what is there is a lot easier than building anything from the ground.

As for Germany playing Tiki Taka football, I am not yet converted. The Chileans put to death Spain. If Spain come back anytime soon, it could be a different story, but to say Germany Tiki Taka-ed, is a little bit over the top. They moved and passed the ball well. They had a plan in place before Pep arrived. Their game revolved around the quick recovery and long retention of the ball. The crisp one touch passing to open defences was never their strength. The biggest weapon in their arsenal was the mentality of stay strong and focused. The aggression in combats and transition was complemented by the precision passing and efficient goal scoring.

The table below will illustrate how playing too many needless passes was almost fatal for Germany. The Germany struggled against Ghana, only benefitting from the Africans’ naïve play. They survived the Algerian scare as the fasting Arabs succumbed to their nutritional demands of extra time. As for Italy and Spain, we all know their fate. They were not so fortunate.

GROUPS STAGE TEAM STATISTICS

#	NUMBER OF PASSES BY TEAMS	TOTAL	AVERAGE
1	Germany	1934	645
2	Spain	1913	638
3	Italy	1735	578
4	Argentina	1694	565
5	France	1576	525

 

Given these first-round statistics, France, Argentina and Germany benefited by going through to the next round. At a later stage, one can guess the champions had a field day of passing against a pedestrian Brazilian side. If one uses that data to claim Tiki Taka is alive, there can never be a misleading statistic. For the propagation and perpetuation of the name, and not concept, what Germany played can be accepted as a positive variant of Tiki Taka, the game both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund played to reach the 2013 UEFA Champions League final.

Remember that Tiki-Taka is football characterised by short passing and movement, working the ball through various channels and, most importantly, maintaining possession. Germany maintained possession well without moving the ball with short quick passes through various channels. They made efficient use of that possession and made it count, sometimes against all odds.

The Barcelona type of football would equal to walking the ball into the net as they intrinsically weaved the passes in the 12-yard box until the goal-line. Save for corner-kicks and goal melee scrambles, that did not characterise the Germany goals in the 2014 Brazil Fifa World Cup. A little more similar aspect of their game was winning the ball as high as possible, especially where they lost it. This made them dangerously pounce vehemently and attack simultaneously before the opposition defence organised themselves.

Many coaches and managers find teams like Barcelona and Bayern Munich and take them to the doldrums. The genius of Guardiola made sure such never happened. To credit Spanish and Germany titles to the man is a little too generous. If there are coaches worthy of Fifa World Cup praise, can’t we look at Joachim Loew, Alejandro Pasella, Louis van Gaal and Jurgen Klinsman? also in their successful 2012/2013 treble run. There could be some truth in that but then they were more defensive-conscious and played most of the passes in their own half.

It his analysis, Oliseh noted that German goalkeeper ‘Manuel Neuer and central defenders Hummels and Boateng were the initiators of most attacks and a passing game that averaged 645 passes in a game’, scoring 17 goals in six games (a goal every 34 minutes), with 64 attempts at goal. All Germany reaped was fruits of a work that began with the squad which campaigned in 2010 South Africa Fifa World Cup, when Diego Maradona asked Muller if he was a ball boy. It was their grand plan after the failure to deliver in 24 years, not the mastermind of the great Pep Guardiola.

As for Tiki Taka, until its revival in the future, it is gone. We welcome the trend of the new world order in football, a fast paced forward moving game based on quick transition by fore-checking and crossing into the prime target areas. The Spanish football has proved it passed its usefulness, being nothing more that romance in the child-bearing process.