World Cup qualifiers technical and atctical dramas

The week of 2014 Brazil Fifa World Cup qualifiers comes to an end and I have tried to keep opinions to myself. Let me keep trying but before I shut up there are positive things that can be enjoyed only by coaches and not journalists. As a football fan, you are likely to understand and assimilate a journalistic version of events, naturally.

Zimbabwe got beat by Egypt 2-1 but I still have to see how the whipping went. South Africa had the Central African Republic bent over and their behind whacked too good in Cape Town last week. To many, there was a justified excuse to cry rivers over missed chances. Sports writers fail to see the light by design or by default. 

What was there to see were the two goals and the three points. They were deserved, beautiful and meaningful. That is what I saw and all there was to see. Patriots will agree with me and nothing else mattered. 

Professional footballers need you to appreciate that all events and occurrences of that night and even more can happen and still the results remain undesired or negative. The CAF team ranked way up the ladder in the world than Bafana Bafana and they are in the top ten in Africa. 

Leaving the entertainment part and showbiz element of the game, let us talk football. On that night, South Africa produced a single complete performance to be proud of. It was in the mould of the first half of their Mali encounter in the AFCON 2012. 

Generally the inconsistent decision-making was obvious but drowned by a more perfect execution of all technique from ball control, passing, tackling or running with the ball. The strength of that win was solely based on detail. The small angles, speed and acceleration, turning and timing of the passes were on the mark for long periods at important junctures of the match.

At first glance, one got tempted Gordon Igesund had a new man in his technical team, or he had just come from a refresher course in either Brazil or Europe, but surely, he changed some elements big time. It could be he acquired some essential and expensive software to draw attention to many things normally missed by the naked eye.

Whatever the trick, Bafana were on the money and with a little consistency, they will be in Brazil next year, but knowing the team, it may be a praise too soon. In any case, there is no need to judge what may happen, so we will sing praises for what we saw. It was a display that would have many prophets of doom mince their words for a while. 

In Europe, England massacred San Marino 8-0, Germany won 3-0 over Khazkstan and Portugal were 2-0 winners over Azerbaijan. I had picked these matches for the same reason. As the David versus Goliath encounters, my interest was the seasoned campaigners' authority over minnows or the reaction of the later over the former.

However, the same trend was obvous across board. All other matches of small versus big team followed the same pattern. The renowned countries did not wait to massage the egos their opponents as they took the game to them from the word 'go'.

That fancy polished passing and patterned attacking approaches were thrown out over the touch line. Balls were quickly launched to the final third and shots fired at any given opportunity. Nothing scares a novice than their fears coming true and these teams worked strongly on that. Direct play became the main ingredient and it payed off. There were times these smaller teams tried to counter-attack but the ruthless defending put paid their attempts which became token. 

Most scorelines were based on the failure of bigger teams to capitalise in some instances while at others, there was no reward for pushing too hard as that managers and coaches were looking further ahead. Spain tried to 'tiki-taka' Finland and failed to net. It was a Barcelona without Lionel Messi. The unidimensional way of playing died a natural death a few seasons back, as did the defensive tacity of the Italians and unsurpassed concentration traits of the Germans.

Football ceased to have secrets long ago and the detail of events in the collective, the single individual behaviour and tendencies and the undrstanding of rectifying mistakes while working to influence the flow of the match are the issues not just to know but to work with. 

It is in this vein that the difference between good players and great players tend to be a debate from those who know and those who people think know. This is not about Messi and Ronaldo, nor indee the legecy of Messi as the greatest ever. When we recall historical players, many seem useless as their contribution in the game can be measured on a poor performance of a single game.

As for the qualifier that Bafana won over CAR, the missed chances could have been something for GI to work on. It will be the reaction of the next training session that will determine the perormance of the next match and one hopes the results will be good. 

Messi is incredible

Most clubs possess a 'Messi' of their own. Manchester United's Robin van Persie, Luis Suarez of Liverpool, Gareth Bale of Tottenham Hotspur and the list is endless and it all depends on the coach and the fans.

Barcelona have their own 'Messi' and that is Lionel Messi. It does not matter the opinion of pundits, media, coaches or any fans. Messi is great, greater than the greatest players because of the way he has carried a very weak and unable Barca on his own. With every cough, the Catalans struggled and struggled big time.

At this point, I do not need an opinion about how bad La Liga champions-elect are. They have been bad, and for a long while, only the mask performance of one Messi seduced us to believe they are good. They pass the ball well, yes, but they defend like school boys. Maybe that is good enough but I am not sold on that one.

The abilities of Iniesta and Xavi are undoubted, but Barca can easily do without each or both, but not without Messi - never. May I mention that after losing 0-2 to AC Milan in Italy two weeks ago, we all wrote Barcelona off. Their 4-0 victory is nothing short of a miracle. Without Messi, that scoreline could have easily belonged to Milan, believe it or not.

The Italians arrived at the Camp Nou believing being Italian is a defensive strategy on its own. They were almost right and they crowded both Messi and the spaces he works it. It worked wonders and nobody could have done a better job. I have never witnessed Messi have such a bad day in office. He lost the ball in one match more than I have seen him in a year.

On such a bad day for the magician, a glimple of who who is came in 5 minutes with a stunner from as little a space as could fit an ant. He squeezed the ball through a needle's eye with the accuracy to goal to match. One may have seen similar goals but the difference here is that the little Argentinian knew what he was doing and had every intention of doing that.

Five minutes from the break, with as little space from similar circumstances, maybe a little demanding, he coughed out the same deadliness and his intentions were less clearer, only this by his standards. Whether he is the greatest ever football player will remain a matter of opinion, as many measure that in term of accolades and team achievements. As an individual, Zinedine Zidane, Pele, Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho have been very close to what Messi is giving us, and maybe they gave more but an I doubt.

Suarez's actions are totally racist

I praised the exploits of one Mousa Dembele, the name by which I am now known by here in West Central Africa. His performance against Liverpool was almost to prove me right, only that the whole team structure collapsed after an unforced error followed by another. Liverpool deserved to win 3-2 but Tottenham Hotspur were the better team until their gift to the Reds.

Amongst other bad thing Luiz Suarez does to other people, I seem to pick up the ones he does to blacks. To many people who live out of Africa, the less politically informed, racism is what people say to other people of a different race. That is not the case. As a black African, call me nigger, kaffir or just black as long as the intentions, emotions and mindset is innocent of evil and exploitative derogatory attitude.

Racism is the mentality that one is stupid because of their race - black. Words can be empty but those who carry the attitude do not have to say the words. Suarez's behaviour against Dembele deserves sanctions and imagine if I was the man with the authority to carry the verdict. He could have called the Belgian of Malian origin, 'sweetheart or sweetpie' for all he cared, but that behaviour is purely racist.

I have seen that several times where Suarez just 'mis-acts' and then run away from the situation as if caring only about his own business of football. I would not have been forced to write this if it was once, twice or thrice but it is now a worrying trend since his high profile case against Patrice Evra. By the time someone really wants to make a case, the dynamics will have scurried off in another direction, but without accusing the Uruguayan as racist, his acts are.

Highlanders and local football must learn

As Liverpool face Tottenham Hotspur today, many see it as a Luiz Suarez versus Gareth Bale, the same way it becomes a Messi v Ronaldo in La Liga El Classico. The inconsistent Liverpool can beat anybody but Spurs are buoyed by incredible performances that have made the world stop and watch, in most cases, Bale.

Statistically, it is with good reason given how Bale scored incredible goals of high importance. Suarez for Liverpool has been a revelation for comparably the same reason, but in this fixture and in all Spurs performances, if one watches football, there is one man of incredible quality and work-rate.

In the whole league, I can only think of his rival as one Yaya Toure but only just. This top-class performer is Mousa Dembele. Bale's individual brilliance is God-given, but the tactical freedom permitting his versatile escapades are a result of the solidity provided by the Belgian. You may have noticed that by now, and if not, take note.

The Orlando Pirates visit to Kaizer Chiefs at the National Stadium (FNB/Soccer City) will be beamed to over a 110 million homes this afternoon. This takes both brands around the world and soon other planets will be interested. It is the work of the clubs, Supersport and the ABSA Premier League marketing ventures that have seen this product in demand or marketed this well.

Pirates need the points much more than Chiefs but their recent form has been questionable as to whether the quest to retain the title is feat achievable. For the neutrals, that is not even important and that is right. I do not want to dwell on the possibilities there but rather admire the abilities of the people from whom neighbouring country leagues could copy and paste.

Highlanders Football Club of Zimbabwe particularly need to take notes. Not all the money generated will be banked by Chiefs as the home team, nor be shared between them and Pirates. There is an individual making a killing as a man. The process, contrary to Bosso beliefs, is not milking. It is called 'busibess'.

Highlanders are perennially broke and have been beggars for time immemorial. They spend most of the time negotiating the structuring of payment or scrapping the bills with debtors. Many years back, we suggested that they engage money-hungry and success-loving people with a strong business acumen to harness the small potential the brand 'Highlander - Bosso' has.

Many of us have tried to approach the club Executive committee with ideas requiring no input from the club, team, players or leadership. The negative responses were that people wanted to take advantage of the club. That is very true and that is exactly business. If a man used Highlanders name to make $10, it surely cost over $7 to make that $10 anywhere in the world, whatever the product. Sharing the remaining $3 with Highlanders on a 50-50 basis is no robbery and that is exactly what the club does not understand.

The Highlanders Executive committee wanted the whole $10 banked in their coffers, a comical understanding of the business mind. Nothing works that way in the world and the 50-50 is the extreme best. The astute businessmen would come up with deals whereby the club benefited 50 cents out of the $3 profit considering the running costs of a business empire. That one enriches himself by banking as much as the team at $1,50 is being naive.

Now, Bosso is not getting $1.50 per item of anything anywhere. They could be getting 10, 100 or 1000 of those, or 10000, a 100000 or even 1000000 from many sources. That should be irrespective of what the source is getting, but in known cases, that has been made clear but the born of contention has always been that people wanted to enrich themselves using the club name.

I would be a billionaire and make Bosso a millionaire and if that is bad, let the woes continue.