Pagels and Katsande has a touch of ‘93 There has been considerable pressure exerted on Pagels to consider Willard Katsande, after the midfielder’s grand performance for Kaizer Chiefs, and it’s difficult to understand, from a layman’s view, why our best performing player in Super Diski should be out and a lot of others, including some who can’t even command a regular jersey in their teams, are in the Warriors’ squad. Katsande doesn’t play for a Mickey Mouse football club, like Black Leopards, Chippa United or Thanda Royal whatever, but for the biggest team in South Africa where the pressure is relentless, in every game, and for him to do as well as he did in the just-ended season, is a credit to both his remarkable talent and big heart. When you are asked to fill the shoes of a legend like Tinashe Nengomasha, at a club like the Amakhosi, and you don’t just do that but shine brightly, and play a huge part in helping to deliver the club’s first league title in eight years, you certainly can’t be just another ordinary footballer. It’s easy to feel for Katsande, especially when one considers that while the hardman hasn’t only nailed a first team place at Chiefs, and made a huge impact, two of his teammates, Lincoln Zvasiya and Matthew Rusike, who can’t be guaranteed a run in that Amakhosi team, are in the national team. Stuart Baxter, who guided Chiefs to a League and Cup double, considers Katsande the best holding midfielder in the South African Premiership, which means in the eyes of the English coach, he is better than Reneilwe Letsholonyane, his clubmate. And, given that Letsholonyane is in the Bafana Bafana team, Willard, using his club coach’s assessment, would walk into the Bafana team. It’s certainly hard to understand how such a player would be deemed not good enough for a squad call, let’s leave even making the final 18 for a moment, in a team with just one point, after three games of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, which gives it a better position than just one other team, Cape Verde, among the 40 African nations competing. We are 39th, out of the 40 teams, right now with just a point and share that position with Botswana, Gambia, Cape Verde, Sudan, Rwanda and Togo. But, for some of us who walked with the Warriors 20 years ago, the Katsande question is not a new one and reminds us of the intense pressure that was exerted on Fabisch, by both the fans and the media, to find a place for Moses Chunga in his Dream Team. It was so relentless and Fabisch faced it every morning he opened the newspaper, heard the voices on radio and television every night before he retired to bed, and it grew louder and louder and the coach was forced, against his will, to bring in Bambo. A special game had to be arranged, just to test Chunga’s fitness levels, at Rufaro and such was the massive interest, and the raging emotions, it attracted 25 000 fans and when Bambo’s night ended early, after breaking down injured having been shadowed by Rahman throughout, chaos broke out. Rahman was deemed the fall guy, and some crazy fans decided to attack him in a disgraceful act, accusing him of playing a big part in the breakdown of their idol while assistant national team coach, Roy Barreto, was also manhandled after being accused of influencing Fabisch to ignore Bambo. Fabisch’s reaction was that he would never take his Dream Team to Rufaro again and, though he was very critical of Chunga that day, he warmed up to him and called him back to the national team ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Guinea only to drop him from his final squad. And, when Chunga was drafted back into the Dream Team, ahead of the trip to the final World Cup qualifier against Cameroon and then asked to report for training sessions from home, he snapped and walked out on Fabisch and his troops. “I don’t think I deserve to be tossed around like a kid,” Chunga told The Herald. “If Fabisch doesn’t want me in his team, he should say so. If one is pushed too far, he finally cracks.” Chunga wasn’t the only one. Dynamos skipper, Memory Mucherahowa, was the other player who walked out on the Dream Team, ahead of the trip to Cameroon, saying he was fed up with being ignored, when it came to the final squad, by Fabisch. “I personally believe that I deserve to be a permanent member of the national team but, if the coach thinks otherwise, what can you do?” said Mucherahowa. A year later, Mucherahowa was crowned Soccer Star of the Year, after leading his club to the league title, but Mwendamberi didn’t appeal to Fabisch, the same way Chunga didn’t, but the German coach still built a very successful project. So, 20 years down the line, we should draw lessons from our history and give the national team coach the freedom to hunt with the dogs that react to his orders best and which run in a particular fashion that brightens the chance of capturing prey. Katsande is a good player, no doubt about that, but maybe Pagels doesn’t see a future in him, say two or three years from now, doesn’t believe the same player will be making the same impact when the 2015 Nations Cup qualifiers get underway even though he only turns 28 on January 15 next year. There are some who are saying it doesn’t make sense for Pagels to invest all his trust in a player like Denver Mukamba, who has struggled to make an immediate impression and break into the first team at BidVest Wits, while it the same time ignoring Katsande who is flourishing at a big club like Chiefs. That it doesn’t make sense for Pagels to call Simba Sithole, still with no goals at SuperSport and weighed down by injuries, to call Rodreck Mutuma, still with no goals and limited appearances at Bloemfontein Celtic, to call Tafadzwa Rusike, who has just been offloaded by Ajax Cape Town, while at the same time ignoring Katsande. Fair and fine! But Botswana coach Stanley Tshoane made history, in the qualifying campaign for the 2012 Nations Cup finals, when he became the first gaffer to take the Zebras to the festival. Interestingly, Tshoane could not have enjoyed such success if he had listened to the experts or, like Pagels, he had not trusted his instincts. The hero of the Zebras’ campaign was striker Jerome Ramatlhakwane, who was clubless, after falling victim to a dispute between South African clubs Vasco da Gama and Santos. Ramatlhakwane didn’t kick a ball, for a club, for almost two years but still Tshoane believed in him, against conventional wisdom that supported the investment in players playing regularly and doing well, and he paid him back with the winner in Tunis in a shock 1-0 victory over Tunisia, the winner in Blantyre in a big 1-0 win over Malawi, the winner in Chad in a 1-0 win and a goal in the 2-1 home win over the Tunisians. And, of course, Ramatlhakwane also scored in the 1-1 draw for Botswana in their friendly international against Egypt on Tuesday in Cairo. CM
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 08:22:27 +0000
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