By Batsirai Sango.
In the southern hemisphere of the great African continent, there are football match-ups that make invoke passions of fans on either side, the two standouts being the battle of the Zambezi involving neighbors Zimbabwe and Zambia and the other being the battle of the Limpopo involving Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Both encounters have and hold historical importance from the very genesis with the battle of the Zambezi first taking place on the turn of Zimbabwe’s Independence night, whilst the battle of the Limpopo first took place in the aftermath of South Africa’s readmission back into the global football community after decades of isolation with end of apartheid.
The month of Caesar, that is the month of July was chosen and highly favored by football heaven, as 31 years ago in 1992 it became the setting for the first meeting of these two-football mad neighbors in the southern hemisphere in what became the first episode of the “battle of the Limpopo” as the match is termed by football pundits.
The National Sports Stadium in the capital Harare was the venue in an Africa cup of Nations qualifier for the tournament that was to be hosted by Senegal the very same year and what a stellar cast from the personalities that made up the two line-ups of the two teams, with players who would go on to make history on either side, living a mark on the continental football scene and abroad today’s football have literally failed to emulate and equal. In modern day times one would compare the cast to Slyvester Stallone’s “Expendables series that has a cast of a whole lot of action heroes from Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stallone himself and a host of other film heroes.
From that first installment of the battle of the Limpopo the football relationship between the 2 nations has grown enabling development of the game
The first African player to play and longest serving in the English premier league Peter Ndlovu, Bruce Grobbelaar former Liverpool goalkeeper and the first player from the Southern hemisphere to win the European champions league, the late Benjamin Makanaky Nkonjera, the late Francis Shonhayi, Rahman Gumbo Vitalis Takawira the scorer of many goals during many battles of the national team that period, former Yorkshire stalwart Lucas Radebe who captained yester year English giants Leeds United, the late Phil Masinga who turned out for the Eland road giants Leeds United, the Doctor of football Doctor Khumalo, Steve Kompella, Helman Mkhelele were part of that all stellar cast.
And what a display of exquisite football the giant stadium in the capital was given with all 5 goals in the encounter attesting to the quality of football and players on the field of play. The warriors as the Zimbabwe national team are called opened the scoring through Vitalis Takawira who made an exquisite turn and shoot like the great R9 Ronaldo O’ Phenomena to give Zimbabwe a one nil lead. With Zimbabwe having an edge over their neighbors it was not long before Rahman Gumbo pounced on a loose ball some distance from 18-yard box arch unleashing a thunderbolt strike that beat the goalkeeper all systems out to make it 2nil.
With proper media houses in the country instead of the monopoly the country has had and continues to have with the so-called national broadcaster ZBC (Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation) , such matches should and ought to have been immortalized, I mean go to Argentina who does not know of the “Hand of God” and the goal that subsequently won the goal of the century, it is so because of the role the media has played in bringing that to traction.
With Bafana Bafana up against the ropes Ewe Khambule worked magic, being the architect of passes from the edge of the 18-yard box, with Doctor Khumalo making the killer pass that set Khambule for goal making the scores 2-1, leaving the visitors with hope of a comeback in the 2nd half. Peter Ndlovu had other ideas though turning it into a Peter Ndlovu show dazzling the capacity crowd and giving a torrid time to the Neil Tovey, Lucas Radebe marshalled defensive line.
The Bulawayo bullet as Peter Ndlovu is called made it 3-1 in favor of the home team, through a penalty that hit the roof of the net, and considering he was still in his teens, the composure he showed was from another planet of football development, and it was not long before he was at it again killing off the match as a contest with his 2nd of the match making it 4-1.
The 2nd one was even better, running on to a long pass on the far-right corner area, taking out two opponents leaving them on the ground and with only the keeper to beat produced an exquisite finish that with a competent media in place the goal would have been celebrated the same way other sublime goals have been raved about, Sadio Mane’s backheel goal against Watford when he was still with the Merseyside giants Liverpool is another such goal.
One wonders whether we have the weakness not to celebrate our own when they do something worth celebrating, and one cannot be blamed for concluding that it is one of the chief reasons why our game has struggled in both nations to reproduce the personalities that starred in the first installment of the battle of the Limpopo.
With a number of players from opting for the DStv premiership it is crucial that responsible football authorities work together in order to develop the game more and produce personalities like the past greats who rubbed shoulders together in 1992.
