SIHLANGU’S DO OR DIE ZAMBIA CLASH

My dearest readers ...

If you are looking for politically correct sound-bites or the overused “we will cross the bridge when we get there” kind of statements, then amiable Serbian coach Kostadin ‘Bill Clinton’ Papic is not your man. He is not your preferred cup of coffee. He tells it like it is even to his own detrimental might I add. Like a battered and bruised heavyweight boxer, he is on the ropes; arms flailing; a resigned face after a string of poor results – most notable his worst defeat of his career after his team lost to lowly ranked Djibouti. Papic is a dead man walking. Very few would envy to be in his position right now though the backstabbers would be happy to get on the trough and once again, hand over the plum Sihlangu coaching post to their lapdogs. Those abject failures – who want to coach the national team behind the scenes - are waiting on the wings, licking their lips in anticipation as Papic and his employers, the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) wrangle over a new contract.

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That’s a subject for another day. No doubt, the Djibouti loss meant once again Eswatini will watch the greatest show on earth – FIFA’s crown jewel – to be hosted by Qatar in 2022 on the small screen is, by his own admission, the worst of his coaching career. It was also Sihlangu’s worst defeat since Eswatini joined as a member association to both CAF and FIFA in 1968.
Faced with a situation when one million people don’t believe he stands a chance to overturn a 1-0 goal deficit away in Zambia where the ‘Chipolopolo Bullets’ have fired indiscriminately every opponent for the last eight years, Papic and his men faces an unenviable task. It is more than just a mountain to climb. But stranger things than fiction have happened in sports. Just on Saturday, Kenyan marathon buster Eliud Kipchoge defied all odds when he ran a 42km marathon in less than two hours – 1 hour 59 minutes 40 seconds.

In football, there is a litany of perfect examples of the biggest turn around to give Papic and his boys a glimmer of hope as they fly to the Kenneth Kaunda’s land on Thursday. It is the words of coach Papi himself that needs to be put into perspective. “We have nothing to lose so we will play risky football and try to surprise them. This time we must fight for results. I can’t discuss tactics but it’s possible if we play risky football. If we achieve that, then we come back, start preparing for the AFCON qualifiers next month,” said the man who is starting to grow grey hair in frustration presented by the poisoned chalice that is the Sihlangu job which has claimed a cemetery of men.

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