First Cut
DENNIS KEAGILE
The media should have played its partThe Group D AFCON clash between Botswana and Ghana on Tuesday in Franceville, Gabon, was viewed as a Goliath versus David fight. But in the end, the Goliath (Ghana) everybody feared turned out to be just ordinary, I mean ordinary.
Article Tools Comments E-mail a friendPrint We all know that the compact play has been the Zebras’ stock in trade, but the Ghanaians were clearly disappointing. Yes they won the game 1-0 through an uncharacteristic defensive error by goalkeeper, Modiri Marumo and his defence, but there was nothing to write home about. We all know how it was put across that they will bury Botswana under an avalanche of goals, but it turned out to be an exaggerated view devoid of the real strength of the Zebras.
And having followed the trend in major tournaments the world over, I think the media coverage of the build-up was a bit one sided. One sided in the sense that, what was generally projected was how the Zebras can contain Ghana, but not as to how can Ghana beat the compact play of Botswana.
As a result I tend to think we unwittingly forced the Zebras to adopt or concentrate more on its defensive abilities thereby weakening its attacking play.
I mean what are the likes of Pontsho Moloi and Othusitse Pilane doing in the squad if they cannot be played against ball playing teams as they are comfortable on the ball.
I am not suggesting anything, but I think a team like Zambia would perhaps have damaged Ghana. What I am saying is that, our transition from defence to attack still needs some fine-tuning as we ought to know how to exploit the spaces for the opponents. But having said that, it is no shame to say, ‘Bravo Zebras’. For a country or team making its debut, the Zebras did not disgrace or disappoint but lost graciously. We therefore need not lose heart even though our game tomorrow against Guinea is a must-win at all cost encounter. Even for guinea it will be a must win as well.
This means that it will be a very tense game with emotions running. On another note and in relation to the first game against Ghana there was a discernible inferiority complex from the media.
May be because of lack of experience as Ghana was projected as a colossus that nobody dare to challenge. I have a feeling that as members of the media, we did not do enough to build much confidence in the players themselves including the coach.
Believe you me, when it comes to big international events like this, the media can do a lot to calm the nerves of even the experts but because of the doubts, we had about Stanley Tshosane, instead of drumming more confidence in him, we instead perhaps threw a lot of self doubts questions.
The reason South Africa won the 1996 finals was partly due to a positive. I remember very well when renowned journalist, Mark Gleeson boldly wrote in Kick-off magazine why South Africa would win the competition.
The entire tabloid had positive stories, which were all aimed at lifting the morale and confidence of the players and the technical team. Given some of the challenges the local media still have, I just feel that we were a little short. Instead we resorted to worshipping Ghana than perhaps poking fun at them and also giving them cause to worry than for them to view us as absolute nonentities.
What came out though is that our coaches are as good as the million-dollar paid ones from Europe and elsewhere. Perhaps low self-esteem is the problem.
And, while I would like to see the Zebras advancing to the next round, it will be no train smash if the team fails, but basing on the display against Tunisia during the qualifiers and against Nigeria as well as the game against Ghana, the Zebras are in with a chance to qualify for Brazil 2014.
This is the Holy grail of football and where the real money is, so we need to project South Africa as just another team, nothing special about them.
I know for a fact that the South Africans will try to use their media to create self-doubt in our capabilities. The 2014 Soccer World Cup qualifiers will fiercely contested than may be the AFCON qualifiers. So, like I have suggested before, we should use these games as preparations for Brazil 2014.
This should give us an advantage against those countries that did not make it to Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
This means that after AFCON, Botswana should raise its bar in terms of friendly games. The team need another training camp in Brazil, where it can be exposed to a variety of challenges, physique, technique and high tempo games. The Brazilian league has all these.
That said, it looks like Equatorial Guinea and Gabon 2012 is up for grabs. The pre-tournaments favourites, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Senegal still have to convince me that they have the hunger to go all the way. So far they have all disappointed and their mega bucks stars from Europe look frigid or a pale shadow of themselves.
The team that has impressed is Zambia and may be just like in 1994 the Chipolopolo will make it to the finals.
Locally, it looks like the new tournament to be played immediately after the AFCON finals – the Mascom Top 8 – has sent some teams on a recruitment frenzy of some sort. The two Gaborone giants, Gaborone United (GU) and Township Rollers – look the busiest in the market, with Rollers reportedly having released six players, while GU have lined up a lot of stars among them Kgololo Leteane of Extension Gunners.
The second round promises to be much tougher, but the no holds barred contest will be the Top 8.
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