|
That unfinished sentence
So my worst fears, expressed in an unfinished sentence in last week’s column, were confirmed. Manchester United lived up to their billing and stopped another in-form team in its tracks. One can only congratulate the Red Devils for bringing my Liverpool down to earth. At least I can see some happy faces this week.
It is FA Cup weekend this time with several all-premiership clashes on the menu. While my interest will predictably be on tomorrow’s clash at Fratton Park – the venue of our 5th round exit two seasons ago – with Portsmouth, the ties of the round should be today’s matches involving Everton and Chelsea and the other pitting Bolton against Arsenal.
Goodison Park is the venue of Chelsea’s first loss of league points this season and Everton are just clawing their back to form. That should make for an exciting game against an effective side that knows how to get its results. The Reebok has always been a tricky place for Arsenal but that’s where they booked their place in last season’s final.
As if I needed some backing, the performance of teams at the ongoing African Nations Cup has confirmed that unless we produce players who can play in big clubs in top European leagues, our goal of coming up with a team that can compete on the international scene will become an illusion.
The facts are there to see that it is names like the irrepressible Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona, Spain), Francileudo dos Santos (Toulouse, France), Didier Drogba (Chelsea, England), Lomana LuaLua (Portsmouth, England), Ahmed Mido (Tottenham, England) and the like who are making a difference at the tournament.
Teams like South Africa, who decided to go local this time, failed to live up to the mark, at least in the opening game and could have been embarrassed with a wider margin by Guinea. That should be our benchmark because the majority of our foreign-based players play against those players in South Africa.
I don’t know what those who were disputing the fact that the standard of our football is low will say but evidence is all over that although we have the talent, it is too raw to translate on the international scene where the game is moving at a different pace. We just need to accept that stark fact and see how we can play the catch-up game.
There has been some consensus from discussions I have been privileged to eavesdrop on that our representatives at the World Cup have not performed according to the expected standards. There are genuine fears, therefore, that these sides are going to embarrass the continent in Germany come June.
That may well be the case but I have seen enough of Tunisia, Ivory Coast and Ghana to remain hopeful. While Togo and Angola may have disappointed, I think it has been all psychological. The two have played Cameroon whose bitterness at not making it to Germany is obvious. It is that anger that has exposed our two ambassadors.
Which is not to say I expect Angola and Togo to do well at the World Cup. All I am saying is that they earned their places over a number of qualifier games and they deserve their chance. Sides like Nigeria and Cameroon, who everybody feels should have made it, failed out of nobody else’s fault but their own.––Feedback: gtukula@yahoo.co.uk or atukula@hotmail.com
|
