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by
George Kasakula, 16 October 2004
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10:19:52
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Nerves cost us glory
I put Flames failure to hang on a 2-0 lead against Tunisia down to nerves. There is no doubt that the team put up a grand performance up to the last ten minutes of the game. Holding on to a lead against a good team like Tunisia comes with experience and I thought the team had some experienced players like Peter Mponda and Clement Kafwafwa to do it. Going on the defensive in the last ten minutes of the game instead of maintaining the momentum of attack which is the best defence was, in my view, a tactical error. We should have continued attacking even when Allan Kamanga was red-carded which could have disturbed the opposition. I am also not sure whether the introduction of Sherry Msuku at that point was a good decision. I thought the game needed players like Albert Mpinganjira to hold on to the ball with his dribbles. I hope the coaches have learnt something from the game. In fact, it is disease for Flames to fail to hold on to leads. Remember our failure to qualify for the 1998 African Cup of Nations against Mozambique?
Free again?
News that spectators in the open stands will not pay for Saturday’s Bakili Bullets game against Enyimba reminds me of a reader’s reaction to my last week’s snippet in which I argued that I would only support the Bullets’ request for financial assistance from government in their Caf Champions League campaign on the condition that an audit is done on how the club manages its finances. The reader from Salima thought the Bullets have no point in asking government to subsidise them when they deliberately lose millions by letting people who have money to watch their games free. I could not agree with him more. Apart from encouraging dependency syndrome, this was money that could have gone a long way in paying for the player’s allowances which they were crying for only this week. But this notwithstanding, let me wish the Bullets well Saturday. It will be a difficult game but if they win it, they will obviously make history. Enyimba will come out hard fighting. After all they are defending champions.
Why probe?
Much as I appreciate Fam executive’s wish to investigate why four Ugandan match officials were stranded at Chileka Airport, I do think it is not necessary to do it. It will be a waste of people’s time and the association’s scanty resources. The association spokesman McCollins Chibvunde says it all that the documents in possession of the referees showed clearly that there was correspondence with Fam. So what is it that the association wants to find out? Fam’s incompetence and inefficiency is legendary. In fact some of us were not surprised at the Ugandans’ predicament. Isn’t it even more ridiculous that Fam officials are insisting that they did not know the itinerary of the officials? I thought they were supposed to know. I thought they were supposed to pick a phone to Uganda and talk to them personally instead of relying on travel agents. In case Fam officials do not know this is what is called efficiency. Referees everywhere are treated as royalty by host FAs. They can change games. Can’t they?
Feedback: 08 307174
Email: georgekasakula@yahoo.com |
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