Senzo Meyiwa, the Lion-Heart, and the Line in the Sand
Senzo Meyiwa was a sweet guy. As footballers go he was about as sweet as they come. I never knew him that well. The first time we met was in a lift in the Hilton Hotel in Yaounde. It was the week of the neutral-ground World Cup qualifier there against Cameroon’s war-torn neighbours Central […]
Senzo Meyiwa: Walking Where The Grass Never Grows
The life of a goalkeeper, if he isn’t the first choice, is like a scene from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. While Estragon and Vladimir wait under a tree in the Irishman’s play, the goalkeeper has the bench. He waits there for something special: getting a chance in the team. There is no certainty […]
Cosafa ‘Champions League’ Dreams
A significant part of Southern Africa – the region that’s known in football terms as the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) – is a desert. It is dry and barren even though it has produced gemstones that have drawn envious glances from the rest of the world. Some of those gems, such as Mozambique’s Eusébio, stretching […]
The Man in the Yellow Shirt: Another Failed Bafana Bafana Campaign
I don’t know his name but for 90 minutes his presence toyed with my emotions, which swayed between ecstasy and joy to abject disappointment. The match yesterday was the endnote to yet another failed campaign. The man in the yellow shirt, a Bafana Bafana replica jersey, was working for the SABC. He fussed over […]