In Touch With...

TONY ZWANE - UNATTACHED

Hola Tony, thanks for making time to be with us. Your buddy Paseka Sekese was with us in the last two editions, and he mentioned that you’d probably have some good stories to share with us. So, we are definitely looking forward to hearing what you have in store for us this week... Actually, the first story I want to share is about Paseka. It happened during a match while we were playing for Richards Bay. I think we were playing against Steenberg (United), and we were both on the bench that day. As the game was going on, apparently coach Simo Dladla told Paseka to go warm up, but he didn’t hear him. The rest of us on the bench also did not hear the coach telling Paseka to go warm up. As the game was going on, we conceded a goal in the second half. I don’t know what Paseka was thinking. He stood up and started warming up, without the coach telling him to warm up. And then the coach was like “No, sit down. You didn’t want to warm up. Why do you want to warm up now?” So, he sat down. After a couple of minutes, Paseka went straight to the coach and the managers and he was like, “Put me in, you can see what’s happening.” It was funny, but I knew what he was capable of.

Ha, ha, ha. He had the guts straight to the coach and ask put in…

to go to be

Yes, he was like, “Put me in.” He conended. stantly did that until the game

So, wait! They did not put him in? Not at all, ha, ha, ha.

For real? You must be kidding! Yeah, they did not put him in. With him, anything is possible. That guy is crazy, ha, ha, ha. He had been in the team for quite a while, so it made sense because I also knew what type of guy he was. I understood where he was coming from. We lost that game and then the beef between him and the coaches started then. And the thing is we also could not say, “Coach, put him in.” I was still one of the U23 players at the time. We had actually given Paseka the goahead to say, “Go there and tell the coach to put you in. Tell them.”

Hmmm, so you guys were part of all of this…

Yes, because we knew that he was the only person who was going to change that game. It became a big thing. The thing about him is that whenever he played, he either scored or gave an assist.

Who knows, maybe the coach had regrets after

wards. Exactly! Another story I can remember was when I was with Stellenbosch. We were having a friendly match against African All Stars. They were still based in Cape Town at the time. The coaches at the club had this seriousness that I never understood. I was always this bubbly person, which they knew. I remember during the game I lost my focus, but I was still there. For some reason, I started dancing.

No ways, Tony. What on earth were you doing that for?

There was this song in my head, and I just started dancing. I don’t know what happened. This was during a game, my brother. It’s not like I was dancing like I was in a club, but you know those subtle moves. It was not crazy dance moves. This song was playing in my head, and I was enjoying myself. Then, when the ball was out of play, I went to go take water. That song was still playing in my head. There I was busy dancing…doing the ‘vosho’ (a dance move) in front of the coaches.

The coaches couldn’t have been impressed…

At that time, the coaches were like, “What is wrong with you?” ha, ha, ha. At that time, I was okay because I was having a good game. Eish, but when the ball came back into play, the opposition team started attacking. Those guys made me run, but the good thing is that nothing bad came out of it, ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha. You were lucky that it did not lead to a goal.

Yeah, if something happened, I would have been gone, ha, ha, ha.

By the way, what song was busy playing in your head that day?

There was this song by Dladla Mshunqisi and it would go, ‘Ye ye’. I remember that song. It was busy playing in my head because, before that friendly game, we had a weekend off and we had a crazy weekend. That song kept on playing, so it got into my head. I could not resist, and I started dancing a little on the pitch. I think we won that game 2-1. It was a friendly game. It does happen in a proper league match, but I don’t dance in a sense. You know when you are playing and the ball is that side on the left? I could just whistle a bit while a song is playing in my head. I actually believed that, yes, we are in a match, but I believed in switching off a bit because it helped me in a way. I knew that I could concentrate when it was time to get my job done.

Well, you were just being plain crazy, but at least you were still able to focus on the pitch. Thanks for getting a little funny with the Soccer Laduma readers. Just please know the difference between a dance floor and a football field. Ha, ha, ha. Thank you so much.