|
Taifa Stars`war is ours
2007-06-02 09:53:43
By Editor
The limelight is yet again on Mwanza, where the Tanzanian and Senegalese national soccer teams are due to clash this afternoon as they seek qualification for the 2008 African Cup of Nations finals in Ghana.
For the Tanzanian representatives in the encounter, Taifa Stars, it will be a war of liberation following their 4-0 loss to the West Africans in the first leg in Dakar earlier this year.
It will be an all-out war, with Commander-in-Chief President Jakaya Kikwete expected to lead the multitudes at the stadium in cheering the Stars so that they play with enough confidence, skills, stamina and concentration to leave their opponents flabbergasted.
As they say, soccer is a strange creature and just about anything can happen during the duration of the game.
Should our boys remember that they could lose, draw or emerge with a bigger win than the Senegalese registered in Dakar, Tanzanians will find the Mwanza encounter a memorable event.
Huge numbers of soccer pundits and plain enthusiasts of the Number One sport in our country have expressed their fears, worries, expectations or wishes about the duel just about to get under way.
It is only natural that their feelings differ so long as, as Gil Stern once so wisely observed: ``Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the aeroplane and the pessimist the parachute.``
But as the nation goes to war at the imposing CCM Kirumba arena, Tanzanians in their totality would be all the wiser thinking and otherwise acting just as once did legendary soccer megastar Diego Maradona when commenting on the thrill he always got when playing for his native Argentina.
This is what the soccer icon, then at the height of his stardom, said: ``When I wear the national team shirt, its sole contact with my skin makes it stand on an end.``
He is also on record as having noted, following Argentina’s defeat of England in the quarter-final of the 1986 World Cup: ``It was as if we had beaten a country, more than just a football team.``
Should this afternoon find all of us severally and jointly demonstrating similarly fervent love for and dedication to our country and all that makes it tick, there is no reason for Taifa Stars not to have a game well worth watching over and over again even if they do not actually triumph.
Yet, as the legendary Pele will keep telling anyone who cares to listen, all soccer is about scoring goals.
England soccer great David Beckham`s wife Victoria has expressed the same sentiments by encapsulating them in even more enchanting language: ``I don’t know much about football.
I know what a goal is, which is surely the main thing about football.``
All these comments have a direct bearing on all that is at stake in respect of this afternoon`s continental encounter. If Taifa Stars think big, they will be big enough to thrill a nation yearning for success in a game they adore.
|
