A regular attendee of matches who would not miss even a Chappies Little League encounter were the opportunity to present itself, at whatever hour of the day, and a journalist with the ability to retrieve water from a stone, Sebs told me he was watching this one game between Ajax Cape Town and Mpumalanga Black Aces, before they became Cape Town City, from the comfort of his press box seat at Cape Town Stadium, and it was eerily empty in the stands, as it was a midweek night game and locals in this part of the world aren't known to come out in droves to a football match unless the traditional Big Three are in town. He says at one stage in the match, the then Aces captain, Zamuxolo Eddie Ngalo, committed a foul, which must have been one of several by that point, for before he knew it, ref Victor Hlungwani sprinted up to him in his inimitable 'part of the action' manner. Even from that distance, revealed my colleague, Hlungwani could be heard admonishing the player, pointing at him all the while screaming, "Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!" The words reverberated right through the stands, he said.
So, you could then excuse my sense of trepidation when the first ball was set to be kicked in anger, since the hiatus was enforced in mid-March due to COVID-19. I cringed at the thought that we could be in for many such Hlungwani-Ngalo moments, which would really be a turn-off to say the least. But, in all honesty, I was wary of more than just that. As 14h00 loomed last Saturday, I realised that the moment was now well and truly upon us. There was to be no turning back. The decision had been made in marathon meetings that the 2019/20 season would be finished on the field of play and nowhere else, much to everyone's excitement of course, but was the safety and good health of players treated as a priority, even as they were summoned into a biologically safe environment in Gauteng, where they will spend the rest of the season? I wondered. What if one player, in this Beautiful Game that is never in short supply of its outrageous moments, deliberately coughs into an opponent (a bookable offence, by the way)? I was a little concerned that the whole exercise may turn into a damp squib, all for the sake of getting the season over and done with. Worried that this sense of trepidation on my part would trickle down to the players, which, in turn, would mean that we would not be seeing the best of what they had to offer. To make matters worse, I just could not imagine a match at Orlando Stadium, long considered the Mecca of South African football, played with virtually no one in the stands.
Well, I am happy to say that I need not have feared, if first impressions are anything to go by that is. Instead, what we were treated to in the two fixtures – Baroka FC v Bloemfontein Celtic and Mamelodi Sundowns v Bidvest Wits – was impressive stuff for the first two games since the break, although one could tell that the match fitness levels of the players were not where they should be, which is understandable considering that even the kind of training the players were doing was a new experience for them, mostly on an individual basis. No friendly matches could be arranged under the lockdown regulations. One hopes the fact that we witnessed eight goals from the two games is a good omen for the upcoming games. With the fixtures coming in thick and fast, it's going to be a real test of character for the players, not to mention survival of the fittest. Thank God five substitutions are allowed per team! On the part of coaches, I guess, the battle of wits has just begun and their decision-making skills will be put to the test, with matches coming so close one after the other, as we race towards the last day of the season, 12 September. I expect the intensity to move a gear or two by next week, making us sit on the edges of our seats as teams are set to exchange positions on the league table, sometimes for a short while.
I suppose what this also shows is that football, after all, is football. The funny old game. The rules have not changed. Whether you play in front of a lone fan and his dog on a Saturday night or in a venue packed to the rafters on a Wednesday afternoon, it's the team that does the better preparation or has the better luck and scores the most goals that will ultimately be on the winning side. The circumstances might have changed drastically, but the game still remains the same. As would be evidenced by TV viewership numbers, it is the one sport still with the ability to command the attention of a massive audience the world over.
Former Mamelodi Sundowns star Lovers Mohlala hinted at this fact in a casual chat last week about the resumption of domestic action, telling yours truly: "If there are no fans, the game will be so dull. If you look at teams like Wolves, they were playing well when there were still fans, but when there were no fans, they were not motivated. Even though in South Africa we don't normally have big numbers in the stands, but that little bit makes a difference. I think it will be like a training session. You know those pre-season games that you normally play… a game under these circumstances will look like a pre-season game. It's a serious challenge, but we just have to deal with it. We're paying DStv and that's the reason we're watching. If we weren't paying DStv, we wouldn't be watching. Because it would sound like horseracing because in horseracing, people never cheer the horses on. They just run. I'm not saying players won't be serious, but there won't be a nice atmosphere. It will just be a kind of game that we are just seeing for the first time in South Africa."
Well then I'm off to the Philippi Plaza to pay my DStv subscription, just in time for Kaizer Chiefs v Bidvest Wits tonight!
