They’ve had a long, hard season and several key members of their squad are weary after representing the national team, but Orlando Pirates can rise to the occasion against Ivory Coast’s Asec Mimosa
SOCCER:Lungile Madywabe
DESPITE the national team’s recent triumph in the Four Nations tournament, there is still a belief that South African football is stronger at club level than at national level.
Consider this: we were readmitted into world soccer in 1992 and the following year Jomo Cosmos and Kaizer Chiefs represented South Africa in both Confedaration of African Football continental competitions. Chiefs failed narrowly to reach the semi-finals of the Champions Cup when they went down to Zamalek of Egypt. Cosmos were booted out of the Cup Winners Cup (Mandela Cup) semi-finals by Africa Sports of Ivory Coast. But it was their dismal performance on the domestic scene which hampered their progress to the final — they had to sacrifice reaching the finals and try to save themselves from being relegated. But it is history now that they were relegated at the end of that season.
Sundowns, however, could not proceed further than the Champions Cup second round in 1994.
Tomorrow Orlando Pirates play Asec Mimosa of Ivory Coast in the finals of the Champions Cup. There are several similarities between the two teams. Both became league champions of their countries in 1994 after boardroom discussions. They both boast a large, fanatical following.
The major difference is that Pirates had been starved of championship honours for 19 years while their opponents have virtually monopolised the Ivory Coast league title. Champions again this year, they have won the title for the last six years. Asec boast 10 internationals while Pirates have six.
John Zaki, who played alongside Daniel Amokachi, Rashid Yekini and the current African footballer of the year Emmanuel Amunike in the 1994 World Cup in the United States, is one of the stars at the disposal of coach Zare Mamadou.
Pirates have lost only once away from home in this competition when they went down 2-1 in Gabon against Mbilinga.
Asec also boast a remarkable away record: they lost once to Ismailia of Egypt in the semi- finals. This tells more about the style of play of both these teams, and Mamadou sums it up well when he says: “We have not come here to defend but to try and win, and our away record says more about us. But we also know that Pirates have not lost a game at home.”
Will they be the first to dent the Buccaneers’ impeccable home record in the face of vociferous support from the Pirates fans? Mamadou, backed by Nigerian under 23 international midfielder Akeem Ogulande, said: “There are 22 players on the pitch and they are the people who influence the proceedings. Those in the stands can shout but they will remain where they are.”
But they have their fears of the Pirates danger men: left back Edward Motale, the dazzling Brendon Silent and John Moeti.
Tsotetsi Phiri and Helman Mkhelele will be closely watched by the Ivorians. “They are quick on the ball and if you don’t close them down they can be dangerous,”said Mamadou.
But Pirates have their own worries. Mkhelele, Moeti and Mark Fish all had a tough week representing the national team in the Four Nations matches and it is hoped they have not run out of energy after all the tough matches they have played this year.
Fish may not be match-fit following a knock he received on his knee during the Zimbabwe game. Pirates coach Joe Frickleton was a bit hesitant about who is available for the match, saying: “I will see how they respond to training.”Pirates go into Saturday’s game knowing very well that they will have to beat the Ivorians convincingly at home if they hope to lift the title at their first attempt.
But the Asec team will be hoping that their opponents, backed by a home crowd, are not at the full strength which saw them reach the finals.
Asec have failed four times before to reach the final and having reached the final after so many tries they feel that they are destined to be champions at last. “We have been victims of bad refeering for many years now that we have finally made it we hope to win, but if we lose it’s all in the game,”said Mamadou.
Runners under starter’s orders in Soweto
ROAD RUNNING:Julian Drew
WITH this Sunday’s race marking the first instalment of a three-year sponsorship deal by Old Mutual, the Soweto Marathon has found the stability it needs to grow into this country’s premier road race.
The first time a marathon was run in Soweto was in November 1991. There were just under 700 finishers in that race but in 1993 the current Soweto Marathon was born under a three-year sponsorship deal with M-Net and attracted a healthy field of 3 200. Although that race ran into trouble with the then- Transvaal Road Running Association because it had not been through the proper fixture channels, it went ahead anyway and was hailed as a tremendous success.
The people of Soweto turned out in their thousands to help the runners on their way and earned the race its by now familiar epithet as the “People’s Marathon”. It has since retained its slot on the calendar for the first Sunday in December.
With last year’s race expected to build on the solid foundations laid in 1993, the event hit problems when the race organisers and M-Net disagreed and severed their ties just a few months before it was due to be staged. It was only two weeks before the runners went to the line that Mr Price signed up as sponsor and although the first prize was increased to R20 000, making it the richest prize on the road running calendar, the uncertainty and the lack of publicity saw the field reduced to under 3 000.
This year’s race has the solid commitment of athletics’ biggest sponsor behind it and there are high hopes that it can now go from strength to strength and become a rival in years to come for the Comrades and Two Oceans marathons which are South Africa’s two most popular road races. The prize money structure with a total purse of over R100 000 has been retained from last year when South Africa’s three Olympic marathon representatives from Barcelona made it a race to remember.
The men’s winner will receive R20 000 and the first woman home will be R10 000 richer. The sponsors have also announced that money from this year’s race will be used to start a trust which will fund at least four 10km development races in Soweto.
“This is a very positive step for the Soweto Marathon and the development of road running in general,”said Race Director Banele Sindani. “What happened in the past put a dampener on the growth of the race but this will help to establish it firmly as one of the main marathon races on the calendar. Next year the Soweto Marathon will host the African Marathon Championships and I can only see a positive growth for the race from now on.”
Last year Jan Tau finished ahead of his Barcelona Olympic team mates Zithulele Sinqe and Abel Mokibe and it is Tau who will go to the line on Sunday as the pre-race favourite. He will be pushed all the way by 1993 winner Mathews Temane, world half-marathon representative Simon Mpulanyane, 1993 Comrades runner-up Theo Rafiri and the young and over- exuberant Eric Mhlongo who usually blows his fuse without achieving his true potential.
Tau has been sidelined by injury for much of the season but believes he is back in form. “I only started running again in August but the speed sessions I’ve been doing over the past few weeks are much faster than this time last year so I think I’m actually in better shape than last year,”says Tau.
In the women’s race two-time winner Helene Joubert will not be defending her title and it is former Comrades Queen and national marathon record-holder Frith Agliotti, better known by her maiden name of Van der Merwe, who will carry the mantle of favourite.
An interesting entry is Kwa Thema’s Sarah Mokgotla who is making her debut over the marathon distance but has done well in shorter events.
Van der Merwe too is recovering from injury but of a much more serious nature than Tau’s. She had an operation on her left hamstring in June 1994 the effects of which she is still trying to shake off. “At the moment I don’t really think I’m fast enough for a good marathon. Soweto is just part of my build up but I’ve always wanted to run in Soweto. My participation has nothing to do with the prize money although R10 000 would obviously come in useful. I got R250 for winning the Suikerbosrand Marathon a month ago and I would run Soweto for the same money,”says Van der Merwe.
Life’s more than a pitch for During
The state of the pitch is one of the most important aspects of a successful Test match, but for Albie During there is much more to the game than that
CRICKET:Jon Swift
WHATEVER the eventual outcome of the second Test between South Africa and England, Albie During will surely heave a huge sigh of relief when it is all over. And then go back to planning the next game and analysing what went wrong with this one.
The former Transvaal player, now managing director of the Transvaal Cricket Board, has an almost nautical air about the way he issues orders, examines decisions made and to be made, and offering — not always welcome —
In truth, the naval simile is not particularly out of place. Managing the Wanderers Stadium is a bit like steering a battleship through Scots porridge. Plan the moves and it works, let it ride and you’ll never get the monolith to deviate from course.
“We’re in the entertainment industry. You have to anticipate,”says During. “Minimise problems and deal with them in the quickest, most efficient and friendliest of ways when they do arise.
“If a spectator gets a cold hot dog and a warm beer, he’s unhappy. Transvaal will get the
“If a spectator gets a hard time because he has been breathalysed on the way back from the match — and I’m not saying that he shouldn’t be — it all goes into determining whether he enjoys the day.
“It’s all part of the total experience of the day. It’s our job to see that everyone in a 30 000 crowd has a good day … a good
To ensure that experience is the way he would like it, During has comprehensive briefings before a major game. He takes few notes, thinking on his feet most of the time. He is also not there to make any real friends as a priority. The stadium comes first, last and
But that said, During is fully aware that each cog is vital in the smooth running of an operation like the current Test match.
“We’re all part of a team,”he tells the briefing. “If a dustbin is overflowing or a toilet leaking, please tell someone. We don’t want any curve balls.”
During’s search for perfection is one of those quests as unbending and probably as impossible as the quest for the Holy Grail. Something always rocks the boat somewhere.
“Last year the betting boys came in,”he says. “It had a knockdown effect of the movement of spectators, the movement of cars coming
“The average organiser is clever after the event. We try and anticipate all the curve balls. We are a first class organisation,”he says with some conviction. Heads at the briefing nod. They believe it too.
During demands the search for perfection because of the situation of the Wanderers, trapped as it is in the middle of urban expansion and ever-growing traffic on the only access road.
“We don’t have a mountain, a sea or an ocean,” he say. “But we can give slick, efficient service which is unparalleled elsewhere.”
But while During has been known to be near- obsessive about what he calls the Three Ps — “A spectator wants a pie, a pee and a pint during the intervals”, is his oft-quoted dictum — he is not unmindful of the fact that the heart of the stadium is the game.
“It all starts with the pitch,”he says, turning to Chris Scott, the redoutable Scotty who nursemaids the green strip in the middle.
“Don’t worry about the rain,”During tells him. “I’ve handled that personally.”You almost get the impression that During has indeed been on a direct line to some influential source above.
“I’m pleased you’ve got the weather under control,”says Scotty.
But then During leads off with the fact that the originally planned strip of turf for the Test wicket has now given way to another some two metres removed. “We’ve had to change a lot of seats around which had already been sold,” he points out to Scotty. “No more changes please.”Scotty nods.
“I know you don’t want kids on the pitch,” says During, throwing another curve ball at the groundsman, “but can’t we give them some time to play their games on the field? I feel it is something we have taken away from
During has admitted in the past that the lunch and tea tennis ball games are one of his lasting memories of watching cricket as a
Former South African wicketkeeper Ray Jennings, now attached to the Transvaal Cricket Office, agrees with During. “I think kids under 14 should be allowed on the ground,”he says.
It is a question of the former players up against those who have to ensure the conditions and safety of the present crop.
“There are mowers and such working,”Scotty points out, “but if that’s what you want, we’ll manage. We have in the past.”
Security is another problem. The pitch was put under overnight guard last Friday. Why risk wasting all that effort is the general
During and Jennings, reluctantly one feels, concede the point. No cricket on the field. In fact, no one on the field.
Jennings has all the arrangements for the dressing rooms finalised. During throws query after query at him. “Fixed,”says Jennings to each one. Both are particularly pleased that the dressing room runners this time will be drawn from the ranks of Transvaal’s young and inexperienced players.
“Perhaps some future South African players,” says Jennings. “We’re putting them in the boiler-room so that they can get a taste of what it’s like.”
But if Jennings believes his major problems are under control, Willie Volschenck, the senior traffic officer who will handle the Test, knows that his work is just beginning.
Volschenck has a long association with trying to turn the incipient chaos of a full-house Wanderers crowd into some sort of even traffic flow. He is a good-humoured man who nevertheless takes his job extremely seriously. He has planned for weeks ahead and will be on duty himself throughout.
“From seven till seven in the control caravan,”he says with a grin which belies the headaches ahead.
“Traffic is our biggest problem,”says During. “We have experimented with the park ‘n ride over the past few seasons. The spectators seem to have accepted it. We’ve got the system going again this time. What about it,”he shoots at the municipal bus representative.
“Buses as and when they are required,”he says. “If there are people, we will take
Those park ‘n riders who will pay R5 a head “there and back”also get their cars looked after at Waverley Bowling Club. “There’s parking for about 5 000 cars there,”says
For the Saturday and Sunday of the Test, Atholl-Oaklands Road will be turned into a one-way — south to north in the morning and the reverse in the afternoon. “No one, not even the police, will be allowed to go against the traffic,”says Volschenck.
Corlett Drive, the biggest headache of all for Volschenck, will be closed as normal for 20 minutes after the game to clear some of the pedestrians carting empty cooler bags and tired kids back to their cars.
Imtiaz Patel, Transvaal’s hard-working development fundi, wants to know about drop- off arrangements for “my kids”, the development players who are regularly bussed in for big games.
During and Volschenck take the new curve ball in their stride. “No problem.”The kids will be dropped off at one gate and picked up at another. It means 14 buses over Saturday and Sunday including 300 would-be Jonty Rhodeses, Hansie Cronjes and Allan Donalds from Witbank … plus a brass band from Soweto.
During turns to the police contingent led by Captain Van Jaarsveldt.
“We’re not in charge of security inside the stadium,”the policeman says, “but we’ll act immediately on any criminal activity.”
To ensure that, the police will be at the ground an hour before play starts and leave only when they are sure the day has gone
During is happy about the long-standing arrangement inside the ground with a private company and equally about the low profile adopted by the police.
“We don’t want police all over the place and people thinking this is a police state,”he says. The characteristic directness of During’s remark brings a wry look to Captain Van Jaarsveldt’s face, but he agrees with the
“Firearms?”asks During, not forgetting the gun-crazy nature of this emerging democracy. The police undertake to provide a safe for firearms and the security company to provide an escort to the safe.
“Firearms not collected after the game can be collected from the Bramley police station,” says Captain Van Jaarsveld. Why anyone would take a gun to a game of cricket in the first place, and forget to take it home in the second, escapes any logic, but the eventuality has been fully covered.
The private security company will bear the brunt of the myriad transgressions that can happen at a game of this magnitude.
“Their job is to deal with the five percent who can spoil it for the other 95 percent,” says During.
They have planned it all down to fire hazards and bomb threats and the routes spectators will take in the event of such disasters.
During is not happy about the use of dogs. “We need them,”says Errol Ashman. “Dogs are the best deterrent.”During admits defeat. “But I don’t want to see them till at least mid- afternoon,”he says. Ashman, somewhat reluctantly, agrees.
There remain the caterers and the cleaning contractors, both areas of activity During is particularly sensitive about.
He wants the toilets clean at all times … and does his own inspection tours each day to see how close the contractors can come to the
“We are not a five-star hotel,”he concedes. “We are a sports stadium. But we can still do the best we can. We want to be proud of our state of cleanliness any time of the day.”
The cleaners — who have already cleaned every bucket seat and tidied up the venue — nod. They know that their day starts at 6am and doesn’t end until around midnight on match
Catering is equally important to During. He gets Jenny Sawyer, the chief caterer, to run through what is available to spectators. She does this in verbal shorthand that has obviously been used before.
“Hamburgers, hot dogs, boerewors rolls, curry and rice, pizza, sandwiches, rolls, salads. Halaal and Kosher,”she says.”And the most expensive?”asks During. “Pizza,”she says. “About R14.”The day for the caterers is as long as that of the cleaners and they have the rush times at breaks in play to deal with too.
During rattles through the other items. Extensive medical assistance, helicopters, VIPs, tickets, foreign exchange from Rennies and on …
Perhaps, as During says, it starts with the pitch. It certainly doesn’t end there.