Chipolopolo not invincible

The President's Holidays presented FC Broadhurst with another chance to fair its play against Chipolopolo, the fancied Zambians who have created a name for themselves as a mean machine in the social soccer league.

Broadhurst came into the Tuesday match buoyed by a 14-4 thumping of Pascos FC on Sunday in Mogoditshane. The Pascos match was the last match for Thando Silongwe as a bachelor and it gave him a perfect send off as he got his name on the score sheet. His goal came during normal open play: Broadhurst had in a FC Barcelona style, toyed with the ball around thereby severely tiring the Pascos midfield and defence and this allowed Thando who was the goalkeeper to leave the sticks and join the attack.

Thando could have scored a hatrick had it not been for Benjie's stinginess. When he finally got the final passes he needed; on right side and on the edge of the 18 yard area, he let go a hard and low shot that the goalkeeper could not even attempt to stretch for because of its supersonic speed. When defense stalwart Mozy scored a replica Charles Puyol stubborn header that brought Broadhurst's goals to a tally of 14, the referee blew the whistle not because the match was over but just to end Pascos' miserable day.

Such a display gave Broadhurst the verve and vigour to face the Zambians but Karabo was not brave enough as he did not turn up for the match. He is usually the first to arrive for matches but on Tuesday he was nowhere to be seen. Other noticeable shaky cold knees were that of Tiego who when seeing the Zambians who play in the Botswana Bemobile Premier league became a bundle of nerves and when he was picked to start as a substitute all was well with the playmaker's soul.

Broadhurst started on a good note, cancelling out every Chipolopolo attack and keeping the physically fit and agile professional footballers off the 18 yard area. But the obvious happened after a quarter of an hour had been played - Broadhurst conceded a goal that no one could be blamed for. It was a screemer from outside the 18 yard area that hit the top right corner of the goals before thudding way over of the goal line.

That goal was like a bullet through the hearts of Broadhurst as they went into 10 minute spell where they were just out of sorts. Another bullet hit the cross bar and Zoro only was good enough to catch the ball as it came off the wood work before another attempt for goal by the cheeky Zambians. Chipolopolo is a nickname for the Zambian National soccer team that means copper bullets.

The teams went for the half time break with the copper bullets leading by a goal to nil and self belief crept back into Broadhurst as they realised that there wasn't much to differentiate between them and their professional opponents. Broadhurst had just given too much respect for people who did not deserve it.

The fear of being blamed for missing chances when asked to shoot at goal saw Benjie and Tinz opt to pass the ball to the next player and this gave the Zambians valuable seconds to regroup. Maqhawe who was playing behind strikers got into a scoring position and he did not disappoint as he fired home Broadhurst's equaliser.

Broadhurst began to see more of the ball as the defenders, Ronny, Mozy, Freed and Mudhawu kept a high line of defense which made work easier for their midfielders who had one of their most tiresome matches ever. Bra Hlo played his usual game, refusing to be intimidated by the rather overrated Zambians: holding the ball and dribbling willy nilly and shuttling from his holding position in midfiled to the left side of the midfield. Ronny had been holding the midfield before dropping to defense following an injury inspired substitution of rocky Parkers. The substitution saw Tiego come in and join Maqhawe, Simba and Hlo in the midfield.

Before long Tiego got his name on the score sheet as he calmly dispatched a penalty that saw Broadhurst take a memorable 2-1 lead. Benjie got to the end of a lovely patient build up in the midfield and his long legs enabled him to dazzle his way past two defenders and leave him one on one with a goalkeeper who is half his hieght and as he was about to pull the trigger, he was hacked down from behind by a defender he had presumably left for for dead. The referee pointed to the penalty spot and the natural choice to take the spot kick was the sure boot of Tiego.

It remains debatable if Benjie would have scored had the defender not brought him down, considering his penchant of wanting to kill the goalie with thumping shots and volleys even when there is no need to: often the result is him skying his efforts over the cross bar.

Broadhurst could have gone 3 goals up from a Tinz free kick from just outside the 18 yard area. There was a resounding eeeeiiisshh when the ball floated past the cross bar just a few inches higher than recommended to condemn an already out of position goalkeeper who stood rooted on the other side of the goal. Tinz had earlier in the first half forced an acrobatic save from the goalie from a free kick following another foul on Simba on the edge of the box.

There was definitely no room for "lami ngifuna ukudladla" as it was a battle field that called for fighters with the necessary arsenal. Sam Gwanzura came in for Bra Hlo and he immediately got himself deeply involved in the midfield battle albeit in an unfamiliar role of holding midfielder. He is a natural attacking midfielder and stand in coach Thutsi got it all wrong again just as he had done all afternoon by pulling out Sam with ten minutes left on the clock and have himself come in and claim the anchorman's role. He could have kept Sam in and the drop Simba to the holding position and let Sam and Tiego conjure a win as victory now seemed certain although Chipolopolo had managed to squeeze in an equalizer.

Indiscipline reared its ugly head again when Thutsi's running mouth got him spewing vulgar and obscenities at Mozy who despite his visibly intimidating frame kept his cool and laughed off a Thutsi that was almost frothing in the mouth with baseless anger.