Battle for regional supremacy

The preliminary round of the CAF Champions League qualifiers concludes this weekend throughout Africa, and here in Gaborone on Saturday afternoon, Botswana’s biggest soccer entity, Township Rollers, come face to face with South Africa’s log leaders, Kaizer Chiefs.

Many are looking forward to this epic encounter that is expected to see the National Stadium in Gaborone filled to capacity, much because of the appeal the two teams exude here and in South Africa alike. Yes, in South Africa, the best that people know about club football in Botswana is Township Rollers, just as the majority of soccer lovers in Botswana know more about Kaizer Chiefs than they do about the rest.

This has thus set the stage up for what should be a spectacle of Hollywood proportions as not only showbiz icons like Vee, DJ Fondo Fire and Alfredo Mos will grace the glitzy green carpet of the soccer venue, but also on show will be celebrated stars in the mould of Segolame Boy, Motsholetsi Sikele, Bernard Parker, Sekhana Nando’s Koko and Reneilwe Letsholonyane to name a few. Almost all of these football icons are the most idolised by their respective people, and to see them together on the same stage will be a sight to behold. This weekend’s encounter marks the second leg of the preliminary round qualifier after Chiefs were lucky to come out of the first leg installment with an undeserved 2-1 victory at the humongous 90 000-capacity FNB Stadium a fortnight ago.

Just as the South African club’s coach Stuart Baxter admitted after that clash, Rollers had presented more questions to Chiefs than – as they said – they had anticipated. The match’s opening goal scorer Matthew Rusike actually added that Rollers were “tougher than we had expected.” Describing the number of Southern African clubs as somewhat “mickey mouse,” Baxter acknowledged that in Rollers they had rather come up against a different kind of animal, and that when they come to Botswana for the second leg, they will “defend fiercely” against a “dangerous” club his players let off the hook.

Yet Rollers never really looked at themselves as inferior to their opponents as loudly suggested in the comments of especially Rusike. Nando’s Koko had before their sojourn to the South Western Townships (Soweto) of Johannesburg - where they played like warriors - warned that they were going there as local league champions to slug it out with the champions of South Africa for the ultimate place in the final stages of the continent’s league of champions. And the Rollers machine is still hopeful, filled with belief that the scales are more tilted to their side this time than they are to Chiefs – despite the one goal deficit. Many actually know that a 1-0 victory for Rollers, a glaring possibility this Saturday, will see the club also known as Mapalastina surge forward to the next and penultimate round of the qualifiers.

And this will not be a strange feat for a Botswana side against a gloated South African opposition. Gaborone United eliminated Orlando Pirates from the same competition in 2010 on an away goal rule, perhaps a stark reminder to doubting Thomases that the ‘glamour’ tag often attached to the South African sides has not always translated into glamorous results on the field against local opposition. And, admittedly, Chiefs are not approaching this weekend’s encounter with any illusions not any more. Baxter’s media comments leading to this weekend are indicative of a man who has borrowed from Shakespeare’s warning in Macbeth – that ‘security is mortals’ chiefest enemy.’ Simply put, overconfidence is often the worst enemy of human beings, that the false hope of being untouchable by Chiefs’ players could be their undoing. Such has been the underlying theme of classical tragedies where the tragic hero had deemed himself invincible before being vanquished, also underlined in the epic biblical clash of David and Goliath. 

And such is the tragedy that can befall Chiefs, as it happened with their Soweto buddies against Gaborone United some five years ago in Port Elizabeth. If Baxter’s boys had ignored that Pirates/United CAF tie as a lesson, then their lucky victory over Rollers two weekends ago must have now given them something to think about – that in this game, there should be no Goliath attitude as both sides have an equal chance of progressing to the next stage. Rollers’ players and their coach are thus warned not to let their away goal in South Africa go to their heads and fool them into believing that their opponents will be easier on the home turf. Chiefs have never lost a match at the 20 000 capacity national stadium.

They beat Mochudi Centre Chiefs there last year; they have in fact beaten Mapalastina on penalties at the same venue some years back in some HIV/AIDS related charitable tournament dubbed Show You Care, and they beat Extension Gunners in the early 90s in another CAF Champions league equivalent – then called the CAF Champs of Champions. Besides, they might be buoyed here by their thousands of resident supporters who are likely to surpass the few hundreds the Soweto club attracted at FNB Stadium.

While Baxter has promised a different approach meant to finish off Mapalastina, Rollers’ Coach Madinda Ndlovu, has drawn confidence from now knowing his opponents better. An astute tactician endowed with the scheming intelligence of a warlord, Ndlovu might just come up with a master class that will leave Chiefs panting and not knowing what hit them. And he has the players with the right kind of mentality to do so.

The likes of Boy, Koko, Thato Bolweleng, Sikele, Maano Ditshupo and Jerome Louis seem to have a sharp ear and seem to heed command to the letter, much like an enigmatic cop dog. It was the instruction they so accurately mastered that saw most of the Chiefs’ stars fail to impress in the first leg. But Baxter now knows better too, and could throw in the likes of David Zulu, experienced Katlego Mphela and a host of other first leg absentees to augment the line-up that clearly failed to click in Soweto. Perhaps it will be a stage the likes of Willard Katsande, George Lebese and Siphiwe Tshabalala will want to shine. Both sides meet after impressive victories in their respective domestic cup competitions, a 4-0 win against SA lower division side Edu Sport FC in the Nedbank Cup for Chiefs, and a 2-1 victory over defending champions BDF XI in the Mascom Top 8 Cup for Rollers. Perhaps Ndlovu was hoping to save the best for Saturday when Koko, Sikele and Ditshupo were made to play a fraction of their cup game while altogether not using Bolweleng and goalkeeper Mwampule Masule.

Whatever the result on Saturday, the South Africans will go back home with a changed attitude towards local football. Rollers on the other hand would have shown why the likes of Joel Mogorosi, Mogogi Gabonamong, Terrence Mandaza, Kabelo Dambe, Mogakolodi Ngele and Phenyo Mongala, have been such a success in the ABSA Premier League – all of them former Rollers’ players.