SITTING PRETTY Amazing Barca reignited the football spark
What a time to be a football lover. The game couldn’t get any more unpredictable and exciting than it is now. I am not a big fan of European football, but when I read of Barcelona’s mountainous task in the Uefa Champions League where they had to overcome a 4-0 first-leg deficit to proceed to the next round, I sat up and just had to witness it for myself.
And I must say that the second leg, which Barca won 6-1, stands among the best I have watched so far this year. I think the last time I enjoyed a foreign club match that much was in 1999 when Manchester United beat Bayern Munich, coming back from 1-0 down with two minutes to go to win 2-1.
These days I normally just watch to keep up to date but don’t really have my heart in it, but Barca’s magical win could have won me back.
But I am glad that the action locally is as exciting as it is over there. The Absa Premiership title race is just what the doctor ordered and if the run-in fails to attract the masses, then I don’t know what will.
As it is, we have five – or maybe I should not count SuperSport United – teams with a good chance of snatching the title and all seem serious about it. Well, maybe except Matsatsantsa.
This is surely the season that will linger long in the minds of
Sibongiseni Gumbi
many football fans. So many memories have been made already although the league is not finished.
We still have matches left which are sure to produce fireworks, and some will have had mini heart attacks by the 27th of next month. If you were to ask me for my prediction, you’d be left thinking I am a madman because I would give you at least three teams. I can’t pick one at this point although a friend who knows I almost always get them wrong has tried to swindle me out of some cash by asking that we do our own bet on who will be champions.
It is as exciting – well at least for us – at the bottom as well. Seven teams – or should I also include Orlando Pirates in the list – are facing the dreaded axe. Both new boys Baroka FC and Highlands Park would be an obvious pick for relegation but both still have a chance of surviving.
But that should not mean Free State Stars, Bloemfontein Celtic, Chippa United Platinum Stars and Ajax Cape Town are any safer if you consider what happened to Jomo Cosmos who seemed secure and needed just a draw against Maritzburg United to survive last season. What happened on that chilly day in May 2016 is now a subject of the history books.
While in the NFD things may look straight-forward with Thanda Royal Zulu as good as champions with their coach Roger Sikhakhane having said he now needs just six points from the last matches to clinch the title.
But, the race for a second- and third-place finish, which guarantees a promotion play-offs chance is still on. Eight teams are still in with a chance of making the playoff spots and the last six matches should provide us some magical moments. All I can do now is just watch as many of these games as I possibly can.