By TONY NGARE
The other day, I asked a K'Ogalo fan whether he would rather K'Ogalo clinched the African Champions League or Kenya won the African Cup of Nations. Without battling an eye, he bellowed "K'Ogalo!"
The patriotic Kenyan was ecstatic in his delivery saying how he would paint the town red were K’Ogalo to bring such honours in his lifetime. He was so excited I had to remind him it was a hypothetical case.
You think he is mad? You are mistaken. This is the general mood among many fans when it comes to club versus country. We would rather have our club shine first then the country later. It’s no just limited to local K’Ogalo fans (am told to be a K’Ogalo fan, you don’t have to ‘offisially’ reside in Kenya, they got the Diaspora branch). Get hold of a British Arsenal fan and ask him whether he would rather have Arsenal win the Champions League (or should the Gooners be dreaming of barely making it to top four) or England’s National team wins the Euro 2012. The Gooner, if he or she is worth her salt should loudly proclaim in typical Gooner style that it’s Arsenal, then Arsenal, Arsenal again then the others.
Apart from the World Cup, international football has been struggling to make in roads in football fans’ hearts. Perhaps the bitter rivalry that characterises club versus country has resulted into this sad state of affairs. National managers, since they got respective football federations and Fifa regulations on their side, are quick to flex muscles with managers at club level. Of course the results are usually disastrous to all.
However, this should not be misconstrued to mean that international matches do not have a fair amount of flair and surprises.
BRITS GRIT
One of the biggest so far is the unexpected win of England over current European and World Champions Spain. Prior to the game, few could have tipped the Three Lions to register a respectable score line leave alone a win. But as they say in Kaya Forest, Siku ya nyani kushikwa miti yote huteleza (The day a monkey is to be captured all trees are slippery).
Expect the Brits to regard themselves as the bona fide world Champions in complete disregard of the spanking the Germans gave them. Their jingoism is on another level. Taking on Spain at football, wrote one daily is much like eating tapas.
Do you sit back and leisurely pick at the delightful little dishes; do you attack the plates as soon as they arrive, not -allowing the delicacies to settle for too long; or are there just way too many choices?
After the meal, no doubt Spain manager Vicente Del Bosque might just be the one having indigestion after this result.
In the days gone buy, Turkey was a football giant. The country regularly and routinely qualified for the big ones but things have since changed in Istanbul. Last week against Croatia, the Turks lost at home 3-0 nil. This is unimaginable. These are the same guys after tying with Switzerland in a World Cup qualifier (which ensured the Swiss rolled onto the extravaganza in South Africa), the Turks went berserk and physically beat up the men from the country without a standing army.
Just in case there were any lingering doubts about German efficiency on the pitch, the Germans put that to bed spectacularly against the Dutch. For the uniniatited, the Dutch is not your ordinary cup of tea. They had the most impressive form going into the last World Cup and bar that game in the final when they lost to Spain, they have—by all standards—been simply put stunning. However, the three nil thrashing by their erstwhile rivals puts a blot but in no way a damper to the Dutch record.
TURKS TAKEN
On Tuesday night, the Turks were hoping against hope to turn around the deficit. The game was always a dead rubber. However, the chance to make it to Europe’s premier international competition was a special motivation and the Turks needed every ounce of grit to overcome the first-leg deficit and cause what would surely be one of the shocks of the tournament’s history. It was never to be. They will catch the action from Poland and Ukraine like the rest of us — on TV!
If you were to have a dinner party of the ‘who is who’ in world football, Portugal would expect not only to get a formal invitation but also to have a table not too far away from the high table. Yet, the Portuguese had problems coping with Bosnia in a Euro qualifier. The Bosnians consider the Bilino Polje their lucky stadium, but it was anything but lucky for the watching spectators who were subjected to an abject spectacle on a woefully inadequate pitch as Portugal threatened to spoil the party. To register a much needed win, the Portuguese had to rely in their bastion, back at home to conquer — mercilessly we have to add — a team of men who have probably seen more war in their lifetime than your typical European octogenarian.
