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Leopard back on football’s top table

12/08/2013 23:29:00 By Lwazi's Pandora's Box

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My dearest readers... All Hail! Ingwe Mabalabala! The new Swazi Telecom Charity Cup Kings!

‘Ingwe Mabalabala’ have clawed their way back onto football’s top table after a two-year absence in which the police side has been a pale shadow of the all-conquering machine that flattened everything before it.

Of late they have been a tamed Leopard beset with tactical indecision, flooded with players past their sell-by-date, hence they have lacked the fizz and zest which came naturally when they won the Treble in 2006.
But form is temporary, class is permanent.

Yes, they might be far from being the all conquering machine they were in 2006 but on Sunday they dug deeper into their reserves of courage and looked near perfect with a never-say-die attitude. Even when Green Mamba equalised through a powerful header by defender Musa Ngwenya, who rose unchallenged to head the ball past a bemused goalkeeper, Mphikeleli Dlamini, the police side did not, for once, drop their heads. They soldiered on with the old workhorse Mxolisi ‘Stopper’ Mthethwa looking like a car with its mileage clocked back. He looked more the age on the back of his jersey than the near 40 years he will reach soon.

He might lack the pace but the centre circle is certainly his operating room and when he fell back to play central defence, his class and intelligent reading of the game outweighed any defensive shortcomings. With a water-tight defence, Leopard allowed the wingers, Juries Gama and Zweli ‘Mlilo’ Nxumalo together with the forceful striker Leonard Bongso to run at the defences of the opposition. Coach, Sifiso ‘Nuro’ Ntibane could sit back and purr with admiration at the zest and effortless tempo by his charges.

It came as no surprise when diminutive midfielder Bongani ‘Chicken’ Sibandze, who is always best for the big stage, snatched the winner with two remaining minutes to leave Green Mamba with a headache of Correctional Services Club E350 per plate Parliament tender mess proportions.
In that Parliament tender mess, the food they provided might have not been charity in the words of His Majesty’s Correctional Services Commissioner Isaiah Ntshangase but this was Charity in the football sense. I saw a lot of similarities between Green Mamba and the national team, Sihlangu’s style of play. Small wonder coach Gcina ‘Magiyane’ Dlamini is a big fan of one Valere Billen. No wing play, no systematic attacking initiatives and all the time, Leopard defence had the easiest task of clearing the ball without any pressure as lone Nigerian striker Solomon Gbadegeshin struggled to make any inroads.

With Green Mamba out of the way, Leopard marched to the final – deservedly so. The main match on the day, Young Buffaloes against huge favourites Mbabane Swallows was the most watchable game on a day when the football, if truth be told, was sleep-inducing more than sleeping tablets.

Predictably, the army side applied the intimidating tactics and the target, from early on, was the eccentric winger Tony ‘TT’ Tsabedze who won the ‘Birds’ many games single-handedly last season. He was subjected to some hospital tackles with one from Sifiso Maseko in just five minutes after the contest was declared on deserving a straight red card. Not only was it a late tackle, but as ‘Ace Ngcobo’ would say on Robert Marawa’s SuperSport 4 Extra Time Monday programme, it had “excessive force in the form of two-footed challenge, the boot was high and it was career ending,”

In that case, it is a straight sending off but referee Thulani Sibandze, who had nightmarish game, developed cold feet. From then on, he lost control of the game. His abhorrent refereeing decision when he failed to award Swallows a penalty when Darren Christie was fouled by Sikelela ‘Djemba’ Dlamini inside the box, was the talking point on the day. I will address this later. Be that as it maybe, it should not mask Buffaloes overall spirited performance on the day when they not only matched Swallows pound for pound but should have gone to recess with three goals under their belt. Former Manzini Sundowns and Swallows new recruit, goalkeeper Jim Knowledge made three brilliant one-on-one saves to keep the score at a goalless stalemate.

Many teams have allowed Swallows to be first on the ball, initiate moves from the back and run them rugged. Ruthless Swallows played them off the park. Koki Vilakati’s battalions refused to lie and be bullied. They stood their ground and like matadors putting on a show at the bull-ring, they resisted everything, closed the spaces sometimes with judicious fouls and hung on their coat-tails tenaciously.

Swallows, for once, were rattled and looked like a badly tuned luxury car. In the lottery penalty shoot-out, the decision to hand one of the penalties to Sabelo Ndzinisa, who had just come in, proved a very poor one and the boy lacking in confidence had his tamely taken spot kick saved by goalkeeper Nhlanhla Gwebu. When Gwebu saved Felix Badenhorst, who also struggled on the day, you could almost hear the hearts sink in the red and white part of the Capital City. The ‘Birds’ wings were clipped and the army side were in the final.

What a boring Cup final it turned out to be. Watching paint dry would have elicited a smile on the over 10 000 fans who watched in horror the two armed forces huff and puff almost aimlessly. The only thing that kept me awake was the constant bip on mobile phone alerting me of messages from my friends updating me on my beloved Orlando Pirates amazing 4-3 win over SuperSport United in the MTN8. In the end, Leopard goalkeeper Mphikeleli Dlamini, nicknamed ‘Rambo’, performed some Rambo-inspired heroics to end the police side two year trophy drought.
His Majesty King Mswati III, members of the Royal Family, the Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini and other Cabinet Ministers were all treated to a good family day and watched gleefully as ‘Ingwe Mabalabala’ were crowned champions. Yadla Ingwe Mabalabala!
The Leopard is back on football’s top table……………..

WITH REFEREES LIKE THESE, WHO NEEDS AN OPPONENT?

That said... “With referees like this, who needs an opponent?

“This guy is the referee of the season. It’s a disgrace whoever put him there. If this is the best that comes of South Africa, the country has no quality.” This is one of the quotable quotes from South Africa’s Free State Stars coach, Steve Komphela and this time he had been angered by the handling of a match a week ago by referee Victor Gomes.

Komphela would have said the same had he been at Somhlolo National Stadium on Sunday where referees, Thulani Sibandze and Mbongiseni Fakudze failed to award blatant penalties. Where do they make these referees? A colleague asked me. I replied. “They must be growing them from trees!”

Sibandze, one of the upcoming referees in the country, who has received rave reviews in recent times, had a poor day in the office in the second semi-final clash between Swallows and Young Buffaloes. Buffaloes defender, Sifiso Maseko’s hospital tackle on Tony Tsabedze, a little under five minutes played, was a straight red card. Horror of horrors Maseko escaped with a verbal warning!

If an open two-footed tackle driven by excessive force and career-threatening is not a straight red card let alone a caution then clearly our referees are operating from their own rule book.
If the Darren ‘Dazza’ Christie’s incident, which Buffaloes coach Koki Vilakati admitted it was a penalty in a post-match inquest with this newspaper, is not given as a penalty, then surely our match officials simply do not know the rules. I think I heard Steve Kekana tell Babsy Mlangeni he would have given that penalty ten times out of ten.

I think I saw Ray Charles nodding in agreement. The foul on Darren Christie reminded me of an identical scenario in the second round of the Soweto derby last season when Pirates’ Tlou Segolela was hacked by Siphiwe Tshabalala inside the box. On that Monday, on SABC 1’s Soccer Zone, the resident analyst Elprofessori admitted the referee had denied Pirates a clear penalty. In Darren Christie’s case, there is no doubt, there was contact. The defender Sikelela ‘Djemba’ Dlamini had no intention of playing the ball. He played the man, hacked him inside the box. It’s a clear penalty. Like in the Segolela’s incident, it was not given. It is the difference between victory and defeat. Buffaloes got a taste of their own medicine in the Cup final when referee Mbongiseni Fakudze turned a blind eye when goal-bound striker Ndoda Mthethwa was tackled from behind by defender, Sifiso Nkambule. A clear penalty but it was not given. It could have changed the whole outlook of the game – and perhaps even the result.

Jose Mourinho, the Only One, once said, a good referee is one who hardly gets noticed in a football match – and both Sibandze and Fakudze need to get their act together because they took centre-stage on Sunday.

Those sleepyheads in the Referees Committee need to wake up and smell the coffee. If referees will decide the outcome of games so early in the season, we might as well brace ourselves for more scenes like the one that marred the SwaziTelecom Charity Cup semifinals play-off replay where hotheaded Manzini Wanderers fans threw all sorts of missiles onto the pitch. We do not encourage violence in our football – it is a part we need to confine to the dustbin of history because it chases sponsors away and kills the game. But our match officials must get their act together. Can they just stick to the rules please and apply them to the letter!