No game...Should we start to worry?

Good Friday to you....


Beautiful days are back again. It's the weekend people and that gives you time to catch and make up for what you missed out on during the overly structured weekdays. 


We don't have a game this weekend, can't say I like it but it gives me time to get some of my commitments out of the way. There's four games on Saturday for the Telkom cup. Surprisingly, at least to me, only two games are scheduled for Sunday. Both playing at the 15:00, couldn't the PSL put the following Wednesday's games late on Sunday if broadcasting was the issue?

Anyhow, our next game will be on Wednesday against Aces, the same Aces that just won against Pirates. There is no therefore anywhere there. What this means is that Aces are not to be taken lightly at all. But since this is cup game, players tend to be more motivated. Which is sad as the league games are just as important. It raises a question of, where our energies should be focussed, Cups or League?


If you're looking at the log table (not upside down), then you might be inclined to think we should focus on the league games. Which might be true. But someone else could be happy with a cup victory. I would be happy with a consistent performance in both cup and league games. Winning a cup would be nice, but not at the expense of a finish high up the league.
This short break imposed by the PSL gives us sometime to regroup, lick our wounds and grow back our wings. They've been clipped quite vigorously over the past weeks, something that makes me really sad.


I could mention that we've had quite a difficult start to the season, Sundowns (away), Ajax, AmaZulu (away), Maritzburg (away), and the Other team, but I won't mention that. Because there are no easy games in the PSL, I know its a overly used cliché but true at the same time. Our next league games at home, Celtic and Arrows won't be any easier. But we have to pick up some points now. If we are to compete for top honours then we should compete and beat these teams.


That is it from me today, enjoy your weekend and do all that you can't during the week.


Cheers and see you soon.


PS: thank you for reading

How do you know you are reading a newspaper up side down?

A very BIG hello,


Not the best of mornings for big hello's. But anything to lift one's spirit is welcome. Some of you would have noticed my absence from Friday till now. There are perfectly good reason(s) for that. I could list all of them here, but then I won't talk about football. Which is why we are here! Talking football that is!


Anyhow, you can take you pick from the following:

• Was sick
• Was half dead, so happy to be back half alive!
• Was sick
• Was writing exams?
• Was sick
• Was over worked by my employers
• Was sick

Most of you would not believe any of this, but rather that I was so grumpy after our loss to Maritzburg United, it called for hibernation.  Especially as I held prayer, after prayer for misery to be piled on Mr Mazinyo! At the end, sorry I stood you guys up!

So the answer to the question on the title

"When Swallows is number 1 on the log, you know you're reading the newspaper upside down!" 

OOPS! Look, the above is copyrighted, so if you want to use that you can send me an e-mail here. 
All that does is add to my list of my bad jokes, further highlighting why Mrs blogger doesn't find me funny at all. Let's talk about football then....


We lost yesterday. Any other loss might be understandable, but losing to this particular team, rubs me the wrong way. Credit to them for getting three points of us. Their rather fortuitous goal, came very early on and that proved to be a winner. Their build up to the goal, was something to take note off. The delightful chip over our defence by Yende gave the assist. Etafia came off his line and initially seemed to have cleared but the football gods decided to bounce the ball off him, rebound it of Nale and bang you have a goal. 


We did come back into the game, but failed to deliver. We have played five games, and not one won. Add the cup games to that, you realise we've just won one game in open play out of eight. Ridiculous!


Mr Zobel, you've got a big challenge if front of you. I am not blaming the coach at all. There's something about the team that is not right. The defence being at the top of the my list of culprits. We can not continue to concede silly goals as we are. Have a look at our games, it says a lot about our defence. Not scoring goals is a problem, but not only at Swallows. The whole country has that problem. No team is setting the country alight with a blaze of goals, so that does console one to some extent.


If that's the case then, it seems you have to win mostly by first defending well in this country. 


Zane Moosa was trying to be funny on TV yesterday, saying maybe we should change the sponsors logo on our shirts from VIVO to GTI...ha ha Zane! That "ha ha" is not the funny "ha ha"!


Let me leave it on the not so funny "ha ha" note...


Cheers and see you soon...

The "Truest" Football Friday

Hello Hello Hello,


You all know by now how exited I get on Fridays. Generally, even those who are always happy (haven't seen one yet), becomes more happier on Friday. 


Today is as true a "Football Friday" as it gets. The Beautiful Birds are up against Maritzburg United for a football service at the Harry Gwala Stadium. At stake here, is the three points we need to get up the log, but also we need to have "Mazinyo" as miserable as possible. The man destroyed one of our own creations.


Something we have to be cautious of today is conceding early and having to come back from behind. We've been down that road and have done well at AmaZulu and against Pirates in the recent finals. However, that can only go on for so long! That spirit is awesome to witness. Sometimes even a draw feels like a win when you've come back from behind. The coach talks about that spirit saying:

"I am proud of leading this team. The players have touched the hearts of the nation with their fighting spirit and I am sure that our efforts will soon pay dividends in the league. "

The coach is right, we've touched the hearts of the nation. Some hearts were soothed, like mine. But others we grabbed them and just run short of sticking the knife in and those guys won't be happy coach. 
Anyway, I'll be the more happier if you can touch "Mazinyo's" heart for me. Only in the manner of twisting it a bit, soothing it and when he's just getting his breath back, You stick the PANGA/ machete right through his awful heart!


More important for us, is the need to take the initiative right from the start, we can not concede especially from our own mistakes. Those have to be cut out right away. 


Something about Mr Zobel. A while back, he missed a media circus (Ok media briefing), but he had the honour to explain and apologies for the mishap. That there, is a mark of a "man of honour". 
I am mentioning this because Vladimir Vermezovic, coach of the famed Other team, decide to walk out of the media circus and declare never to talk to them unless where compelled by PSL regulations.
Well good luck VV, lets see if you can win the fight against media bunch. Hey, why not form a support group with JZ and Bheki?

VV: Ello, I am VV and totally hate the media!

JZ: Welcome VV!

Bheki: Tell that Motaung boy to shoot to kill, aim for the head, the HEEEEAAAAD!

Here's to three points!


Cheers and see you soon 

Keepers...Lefa in training

Good day!


It is the day before the day that football is back again. Which means it's thursday, the day before Friday when we will see a game of Football. YEE PEE!!!


I've been wondering, ahead of tomorrow's game, who will be our number one tomorrow! In our last game, the MTN 8 finals, we had both of our keepers take part due to an injury to our number 1 elect this season, Aubrey Mathibe. The injury section on our officiall website has not been updated with his injury, so I take it he is fit or someone is not doing his job.
Greg Etafia came on for the second half had a good game. And that does not imply Mathibe didn't have a good game either. But I tend to think he didn't help himself with the penalty conceded for Pirates' first and only goal. Generally thought, Mathibe has saved us in a number of games.


But this leads me to another issue. Of the top of my head, we've only played one game without conceding (I could do a bit of research but am lazy). That was the MTN 8 first leg game against Ajax in Cape Town, all the other games saw us concede, by worrying margins as well. I am far from blaming this on the Mathibe or the keepers. Its a team sport and the whole team has to defend as well as attack together. But keepers do play a critical role in the defensive aspect of the game. They have to organise defenders, shout at them when they're out of position, admonish them when they make bad passes in dangerous areas and also make the occasional last gasp saves. Defenders also have to be confident that their keeper will bail them out when the need arises.


I don't know why we've been conceding so many goals, and it is in no way just a goalkeeping problem. But Mathibe has been given a good run of games, a real confidence booster  and trust shown by the coach after Etafia has been our undisputed no 1 for a long time. So far we've tried with Mathibe in goals, I still think we can do better with Etafia especially after being dropped for the start of the season. He would be burning with desire to perform well knowing well that a drop in performance Mathibe would be there to claim the stakes.


In other news, Lefa Tsutsulupa says:

"After more than two months on the sidelines, it felt great to train with the team again last week. It's been a struggle and I am still in pain, but hopefully it will subside once I start getting stronger. I have done my rehab with the sports clinic as well as our own physio. Maybe in a week or so I'll start competing to be in the team."

So we know he won't be playing tomorrow, which is understandable. I'd rather he comes back when he's truly fit. Unfortunately we don't have the reserve football games that was introduced a few seasons ago and was ditched as soon as it started. Don't ask me why, but that is one of the ways to get player fitness and match practice up to scratch as used by many European teams. 


Three of our players (Ramahlwe, Shane and Ace Bhengu) were included in the U23 squad for the recent 2-0 win over Iran in Iran, which is good that we have a fair representation in our national teams and shows that development is taken to heart by the Birds.


That's it from me today.


Cheers and see you soon....

Football is back....soon

Good day!


Friday is approaching thick and fast which can only be a good thing. We've been deprived of the various "lekker" local football for over a week now. 


Maritzburg United away this very Friday will be interesting. Interesting because they coached by that toothless coach the one Enrst Middendorp. Now I have a particular dislike for the man because;

1. He coached the Other team, the one that wears yellow and black but calls it gold and black, and I hate them.
2. But my dislike for him is borne more out of what he did to Scara Ngobese. 

Scara Ngobese started with us the Beautifull Birds, before ending up with the Other team. Mr Middendorp saw it very fit to destroy a career of one of football's last true entertainers. You can talk about the end product all you like, the truth is Ted Dimitru won the league for the other team consecutively and no prices for guessing who his linchpin was. If you haven't figured it yet, it was Scara.

He did all his gimmicks, nutmegs and the shibobos on the field of played but at the end he was behind that killer pass or even giving the killer blow himself. And then came "Mazinyo", the rest as they say is a very sad history.

So for me Friday's game has an added meaning to it and I'd love for our boys to win it for:

• the three points we need to get up the table

• the memory of my fallen hero, Scara Ngobese

• but mostly as football religion prescribes, just so Middendorp can be miserable. And I will call on the football "HIGHER BEINGS" to make especially this point come true, and for Mr Middendorp to be followed by misery wherever he goes. 

In other news, the SABC / SAFA (Yes! I am still on about them), have "found a way forward" after the debacle of Sunday. And what that tells us is how far behind the SABC and SAFA are in being charge of football in this country. That "way forward" should have been standard staff up to now. 

What I personally hope for is that the TV rights contract with the SABC is NOT renewed when it expires. There are broadcasters our there that can do a much better job. And the "job" is not just broad casting games. If you take the Springboks and compare the brand power to Bafana Bafana, then you realise what I am on about.

 

We need a broadcaster who will market Bafana, and will have programming related to Bafana Bafana other than just games. The obvious candidate will be Supersport, but there are others out there, so SAFA do your job!

This is where I end it today. 

Cheers and see you soon.

PS: Please drop me a comment or two. Even when it was a battle for you to get to the end of the article. 

We draw Aces...Maritzburg edging closer

Good Day!


After my rant about the SABC yesterday, I have no inclination to revisit that topic again. A lot of people called radio stations, television programs and some on the internet wrote to express their "disappointment" with  our broadcasting corporation. 


I am surprised people were only disappointed, really? I am still disgusted, what they did was vomit inducing. I did not puke on Sunday when I discovered they won't be showing the game, and that only tells you one thing! Nothing will ever make me throw-up after the SABC / SAFA debacle failed to.  


The reason people are overly incensed with the SABC/SAFA is that, there is a bit of positivity around Bafana Bafana at the moment, the kind that's never been seen for a long while and we all want to be part of that. More so for those that have been supporting Bafana through its difficult times. 
I started by saying I won't revisit this topic again and here I am, a thousand and one words later and am still on it. Just goes to show how everyone's blood boiled on Sunday for missing this well awaited mass service!


Back to the PSL, and you can be guaranteed you won't miss any of it. The Telkom draw was done last night, and the Beautiful Dube Birds have drawn Mpumalanga Black Aces.  Not the worst of draws but Aces are not to be taken lightly, especially with Neil Tovey at the helm. Players there will be going all out to impress the new coach.  But I am certain our coach will make sure the players are up for the challenge having just recently lost to Pirates in the MTN 8 finals. 
I did mention in one of my blogs that no one in the Swallows camp should be dejected by that loss. The lottery of penalties handed that cup to Pirates. We did well getting to the finals, disposing of Supersport through penalties ourselves and Ajax in a well deserved victory. 


Before Aces though, we have a not so small matter of Maritzburg United away this Friday. The recent break for international football would have given our players a good rest, not that they needed it. The season has just began and not much football has been played to be honest. 


We are in the wrong half of the league table, so Friday's game calls for a three pointer to move up. 


Nothing else from me, the night mare of Sunday is still taunting me....Can we sue the SABC?


Cheers and see you soon

Don't watch the SABC...bad for you health!!

Good Day!


Its not such a beautiful sporting Monday morning for one particular reason. I can't discuss anything about Bafana's performance against the Leone Stars with my fellow "sofa" coaches. No debates, tactical master plan that should have been implemented this and that way! Nothing, NADA!!!  And that is thanks to our beloved SABC! 


Well, according to media outlets, Bafana got a very credible draw away in Freetown. The SABC, holders of all broadcast rights for Bafana Bafana games, saw it fit not to broadcast the game yesterday. Can't wait for their explanation. Not like I am expecting anything that will make sense. 


I don't know how it makes you feel, but I will tell you that I can't find one word in the dictionary that captures my irritation with the SABC for not showing Bafana's games. It's a serious pain and a health risk, to scroll through all Dstv channels back and forth hoping that, by some weird miracle they might be showing the game. No luck for me, I went to Lesotho TV, Soweto TV, and even M-NET, just hoping!!!!


A few weeks back, SAFA through Leslie Sedibe, put it out that they are putting the broadcasting rights for Bafana's games out in the market for bidding purposes. We all know that the PSL rights we bought by Supersport via DSTV and local football broadcasting has never been better. At the time when Supersport purchased the PSL rights, I wasn't entirely for it as I thought it might take football away from the people who really watched it.

Hindsight shows us that people weren't really getting any football at all through the SABC. And sadly that is the case with Bafana Bafana now. It makes it infinitely sad when you actually pay you TV licence without question. I will continue to do so, and will not for one second call for anyone to stop paying theirs.


But here's what I can call for:

"STOP watching the SABC, they are making loss, after loss, after loss, yearly that is. That is after you've paid you TV licence, they had a huge slice of the government money (your tax money) and they get loads more commercially through advertising."

I don't have access to the SABC's accounts but am fairly certain that commercial revenue makes a huge chunk of their money. That means they have a massive viewer-ship and that is what advertisers are after. So if you and I stopped watching, their viewer-ship drops, they don't get advertisers and thus no money to waste...simples!!! Good programming(not that the're many at the SABC) will find its way to good channels and South Africa will be a better place for it.


I hate missing games, especially when I've planned my day around watching it. It unreasonable from the SABC! I can't imagine how difficult it is to sell the rights for just yesterday's game to Supersport. They new months ago, as you did, that there will be a Bafana vs Sierra Leone game. Why couldn't they make plans to show the game on one of their other channels if those SALTA awards were so important for SABC 1 viewers? 


I am at the end of my blog and haven't even mentioned anything about football, my blood pressure is rising and sugar levels getting worse. The SABC is bad for you health, take it from me!!!


If you don't stop watching the SABC (South African Babalas Corporation), I will go for our mass service and ask for their transmission stations in your area to be hit by lightning!!!


And you know my prayers come true!!! Check the results of Niger vs Egypt after my calls on Friday!!!


cheers and see you soon