I'm not sure if South African soccer is cursed, but certainly there seems to be a dark cloud hanging over our professional soccer players. In the 16 years that I have been at Soccer Laduma, we have had to report on far too many road deaths stealing away our footballing heroes. This week an entire nation bid farewell to Mondli Cele, who was so cruelly taken away from us when the car he was in spun out of control into a river. A family mourns, teammates mourn, the South African soccer fraternity mourns, a nation mourns. There are no words that can take away the pain or the tears. There is only grief…
This especially hits home as just last week long serving Soccer Laduma man Vuyani Joni's dad tragically passed away, as did my own gran. My brother sent a poem from an unknown author that I think best describes the grief felt. Part of it reads...
I had my own notion of grief.
I thought it was a sad time that followed the death of someone you love.
And you had to push through it
To get to the other side
But I'm learning there is no other side
There is no pushing through.
But rather,
There is absorption.
Adjustment.
Acceptance.
These words struck a chord because, for those who have lost a loved one, it's not that we stop grieving or caring. It's rather that we accept that someone is gone and we deal with it in our own way. In the coming days, weeks, months and years, the family and friends of Mondli Cele will grieve. The thoughts and prayers of everyone here at Soccer Laduma go out to you during this difficult time.
Shifting attention to the soccer field, something strange is happening in football… and not just here locally, but around the world. Perhaps the best example of it is playing out in two of South Africa's most loved leagues – the PSL and the EPL. In what some are calling a potential fairy tale, Leicester City in England are making a legitimate go at winning the EPL, while here in SA Mpumalanga Black Aces (albeit for only a moment) reached the summit of the PSL log. In the EPL the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United are being rolled over quite consistently by the so-called smaller clubs, while here in South Africa giants Orlando Pirates find themselves struggling to work their way up the log table, with big-spending SuperSport United and the usually highly competitive Ajax Cape Town also finding the going extremely tough.
What is happening? Is the fact that in both leagues the so-called smaller teams are giving the bigger teams a run for their money a sign of more competitiveness and therefore a better league? Is it good for football that the smaller teams seem to be catching up and closing the traditionally huge gap between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. I don't think so.
Personally I don't think it has much to do with the small teams improving. I think that, rather, it has to do with the big teams getting worse, which therefore means our football on a whole is deteriorating. This sentiment is reflected in our national team, who are not at this year's CHAN, and likewise by the England national team, who, when they qualify out of weak groups and reach European competitions and World Cups, ultimately fail dismally. I think alarm bells should be ringing at the big clubs because, unless club owners, coaches and players start re-establishing the pecking order and ensuring that our elite clubs are elite by continental standards, then we will continue to be found desperately wanting by world standards.
If the alarm bells are not yet ringing, then simply glance over to the NFD league table and take a look at the bottom of it, where you'll find the once mighty Moroka Swallows. A club's name and magnificent history mean nothing unless those currently at the wheel are constantly pushing to be better than those who wore the jersey before them… those whose default mind-set is 'that was good, but I can do better'.
One man in the PSL who knows about pushing for better is Thobani Mncwango, who scored four goals against SuperSport last Saturday. Week in and week out we hear about Messi and Ronaldo scoring multiple goals and, while some dismiss this as a by-product of a weak domestic league, scoring is undoubtedly an art! Scoring four goals – no matter the professional league in which it is achieved – is something to be celebrated. Hell, we celebrated Benni McCarthy scoring four goals against Namibia (hardly a world power) but the fact is nobody else could do it and it heralded him going on to score goals against some of the best teams in world football. So to Thabani, big-ups for lighting up our league and also your star on the weekend! Now to go and do it again, sir!
Shappa
Clint
Thanks
