Robson Sharuko
Metros Editor
IT’S the Warriors’ biggest game in 32 years — a blockbuster showdown soaked in blood, sweat and tears, blighted by tragedy, fuelled by neighbourhood bragging rights and everything which has transformed derbies into box office attractions.
The blood is represented by the 13 fans who died in a stampede at the National Sports Stadium and the sweat is represented by every Warrior who has taken part in these epic duels. The tears are represented by the numerous times we have cried as a nation after a defeat in these ultimate battles.
Zimbabwe versus South Africa!
The Warriors versus Bafana Bafana — it’s an age-old rivalry and its latest episode, a winner-take-all titanic clash — will be shot today at the Marrakesh Stadium in the kingdom of Morocco.
The match starts at 6pm.
Not since that epic battle against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon on October 10, 1993, in Yaounde, have the Warriors played a game of such magnitude and such significance.
Back then, it was an historic quest — for a place at the ’94 World Cup finals and the Warriors, then known as the Dream Team, found themselves on the threshold of immortality.
All they needed was to beat Cameroon, in their backyard, and they would be on their way to the Promised Land.
However, Cameroon also happened to be the home nation of the then CAF president Issa Hayatou and, before such games were regularly screened on television, dark arts were part and parcel of the sport. The gallant Warriors lost 1-3, their coach Reinhard Fabisch was so appalled by the biased refereeing he threw US dollar notes in the direction of the match officials at the end of the game. His message was that they had been bought to destroy a nation’s dream in exchange for a few pieces of silver and, given Hayatou was the CAF boss, Fabisch was banned for a year.
And, in that moment, his romance with the Warriors effectively ended.
His romance with this country remains to this day, with his son Jonah pursuing the dreams of his father to help this country succeed in the jungles of international football.
And, as if fate is also playing a big part in this script, next year the World Cup returns to the United States. It’s the very country where the older Fabisch wanted to take us, and even though we won’t be there again, it’s not where the focus is.
Right now, all the focus is on the 2025 AFCON finals, and this evening, Jonah and his teammates have a massive chance to write their names in golden letters in the history books of our football.
All they need to do is beat Bafana Bafana, and they could become the first group of Warriors to reach the Last 16 of the AFCON finals.
Fate could not have chosen a better opponent because, in football, Bafana Bafana represent the ultimate rivals — the boys who became men on home soil in 1996, the team which was part of our game’s biggest tragedy. It unfolded on July 9, 2000, during a World Cup qualifier when a second Bafana Bafana goal triggered pandemonium in the stands at the National Sports Stadium, and by the time the tear gas fired by police cleared, 13 fans lay dead. Dean Alec Fidesi was only six and he was the youngest to die that day.
He had already chosen his two favourite teams — the Warriors by birth and Dynamos by choice.
His photo, with a DeMbare flag, touched the hearts of millions and they grieved with his father, Alec Fidesi Snr, when he laid his son to rest, a few days after the tragedy. He remains the face of the tragedy. A dozen others — Eularia Made, who was a student at the UZ; Tawanda Gwanzura, Patrick Mpariwa, Killian Madondo, George Chin’anga, Joyce Chimbamba, Benhilda Magadu, Ronald Kufakunesu, Tonderai Jeke and T Makonese — also perished that day.
Chin’anga, who was working in the finance department at Innscor Africa, was pursuing further studies at the time he died that day.
All of them, with the exception of Fidesi, had been born by the time the Warriors thrashed Bafana Bafana 4-1 at the giant stadium in what was a baptism of fire as South Africa returned to the international arena. Bafana Bafana quickly found out that ShuShine piano wasn’t for such a big stage. They also found out that it was just a mere township comedy show, disguised as an expression of football skills, a strange and suicidal football culture where outrageous flicks were celebrated as a definition of class.
Knowledge Musona was just two years old and now, at 35, he is among the oldest member of this Warriors team in Morocco.
Even though he is now in the sunset of his career, he remains a very influential man.
He showed his class with a beauty of a goal against Angola and, given he is a man whose best years in his foreign adventures came during his stay in South Africa, he is a footballer they know very well. The emergence of a battery of youthful forwards, powered by pace and artistry, has given the Warriors options in their attack to trouble any side in this competition.
It’s a Warriors side which scored a goal against the Pharaohs of Egypt and should have had two if Washington Navaya’s reaction had not betrayed him. It’s something which Bafana Bafana failed to do, scoring a goal against Egypt, even after the Pharaohs had been reduced to 10 men for long spells in the game. Make no mistake about it.
A defining moment in a nation’s football story, the latest episode of the never-ending tale of the Battle of Limpopo — 17 million people going toe-to-toe with 65 million people. Just imagine the possibilities, including the fairytale of Musona, the greatest Warrior after the GOAT Peter Ndlovu, scoring the winner this evening.
There will be tears in heaven if that happens.
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