SOCCER:Julian Drew
FEW people gave Congo much of a chance against Clive Barker’s African Champions in last Sunday’s crucial world cup qualifier in Pointe Noire. Bafana Bafana were unbeaten in seven games and after holding the seeded Zambians in Lusaka, they were favoured to head the group and book their place in next year’s showpiece in France.
Although Congo were at the top of group three they were considered to have ridden their luck in grabbing a late winner in Pointe Noire to beat Zambia 1-0 and then hold Zaire 1-1 in Kinshasa.
Even their elimination of the once mighty Ivory Coast in the preliminary rounds by a 3-1 aggregate score over two legs failed to impress the cognoscenti.
Ivory Coast were in transition, they said, and when South Africa went in level at half-time on Sunday looking very comfortable on the bumpy pitch, the pundits seemed to be right.
Then in the second half Congo’s coach David Memy introduced his secret weapon – Macchembe Youngha-Mouhani. Significantly he hadn’t played for Congo since the preliminary matches against Ivory Coast, the last time Congo really impressed.
Youngha is the only Congolese player who has established himself in one of Europe’s top sides and with his team Fortuna Dusseldorf involved in the relegation battle in the German Bundesliga he felt compelled to stay and help his club side on Saturday.
“I did it for my team. I wanted to try and help Fortuna because it was a very important game for us. If we didn’t win it is possible we could be relegated to the second division. So I phoned the national team to say I wouldn’t be arriving until Sunday,” said Youngha after becoming a national hero with his two-goal salvo against South Africa.
Youngha’s loyalty to Fortuna paid off as they beat fellow strugglers St Pauli 2-0 in a decisive six-point clash. Then he was rushed to the airport to take an overnight flight to Brazzaville before arriving in Pointe Noire at 10.30 on Sunday morning.
Although it seems likely that Memy left Youngha on the bench because he feared he was tired, Youngha disagrees. “I didn’t feel tired and to me it’s all in the head,” he said. “I always said I was going to play and the coach just played a psychological game by saving me for the second half. I guess you could say it paid off,” he said with a grin.
The 22-year-old Youngha has only recently established himself in the Fortuna first team and joined them at the beginning of the season after spending a year with Borussia Moenchengladbach where he made only two first- team appearances.
He went to Germany at the behest of Congo’s former German coach Joachim Fickert and joined third division club Schwarz Weiss Duren.
Now he is on the verge of becoming a household name as the star player of a team which is now in the driving seat in the race for France ’98. “I think we can make it to France now because South Africa was the most difficult hurdle for us and now we are over that. Now we must play well in our next game against Zambia which will also be a difficult game,” said Youngha.
For the time being Youngha just wants to savour the taste of victory and the satisfaction of settling an old score. “This was the best win of my career and for me it is also a revenge against South Africa for when they beat us in the last World Cup campaign.”