Is it Just An Illusion

IMAGINATION was an English three piece band, who came to prominence in the early 1980s and it was named as a tribute to John Lennon of The Beatles fame.

I fell in love with the group especially after their smash hit, Just An Illusion.

The cut went something like this: Searching for a destiny that’s mine There’s another place another time Touching many hearts along the way yeah Hoping that I’ll never have to say It’s just an illusion, illusion, illusion Follow your emotions anywhere Is it really magic in the air Never let your feelings get you down Open up your eyes and look around It’s just an illusion, illusion, illusion Could it be that it’s just an illusion Putting me back in all this confusion Could it be that it’s just an illusion now Could it be that it’s just an illusion Putting me back in all this confusion Could it be that it’s just an illusion now Could it be a picture in my mind Never sure exactly what I’ll find Only in my dreams I turn you on Here for just a moment then you’re gone It’s just an illusion, illusion, illusion Illusion, illusion, illusion, illusion… I was reminded of this song by the CONFUSION that has characterised our own Mighty Warriors’ participation at the Olympic Games in Brazil, although the women touched many hearts along the qualification stage.

However, barely a few weeks before Rio, head coach Shadreck Mlauzi, in light of shambolic preparations is surprisingly putting on a brave face as his side prepares to battle the best in women’s football in the world.

Lack of proper friendly games, lack of resources and lack of goodwill remain the impediments that will stand in the Mighty Warriors’ way.

Perhaps one can sum up that quest to participate, to surprise all and sundry, at the cut throat outing for our women JUST AN ILLUSION.

And yet the Mighty Warriors went through the tough hurdle of qualifying, ready to confound us all!

Yes, we may ask: How on earth can they get stuck in the widest section of the tunnel (the Olympics proper), having already negotiated their way through the narrowest (the qualifiers)?

Late last year, Mlauzi (as ambitious as they come) crafted a preparatory ambitious road map which would have seen his lads feature in four international friendlies, a training camp in Europe and also a month spent in the United States of America immediately before the start of the games. But that still remains, what it is, a pipe dream. However, the Mighty Warriors managed to play a friendly with fellow qualifiers South Africa which they lost. Ironically, South Africa, have been in camp since January, they have played friendlies against the Netherlands twice, the current World and Olympic champions, USA as well as against the Mighty Warriors of Zimbabwe.

The South African Football Association have to date spent R15 million (About US$1m) to prepare Banyana’s preparations for the Olympics.

“We will make do with what we have and everyone is aware of the tough task that lies ahead but we have to soldier on and go and do our best because national pride is at stake,” points Mlauzi, in a story carried elsewhere in our sports pages.

But the Olympics are no child’s picnic. That is the stage where the girls are separated from the women.

And what makes the task even so arduous for our girls is that they are placed in a group that comprise Canada, Germany and Australia, who are all in the top 10 of the world rankings, while we are on a 93rd placing.

But our approach, unlike of fellow qualifiers SA, have been, to say the least, shambolic, lackadaisical, or uninspiring. It has all been waiting, hiding, and pretending, a typical example of how not to prepare for a spectacle of such magnitude, preparations of which have been undermined by serious lack of goodwill, especially from the corporate sector.

It seems we have been clinging to the hope that there is someone “up there’’ or “out there’’, a kind of higher power or God-sent directive, a Divine intervener to make sure that come Hell and Come thunder, everything will turn out right at the end.

We knew the destination when we qualified, we had ample time to prepare the girls for we might soon discover to be the powder keg atmosphere in Brazil, it will be. We are not being alarmist here.

But lo and behold we seem content in sending our girls to Rio, just like the proverbial “lambs being led to slaughter”.

But it should be noted that prior to the Mighty Warriors’ breakthrough, a lot had been lacking in a country that had failed to come up with a team of “world-beaters’’ despite the talent at disposal, and the annual cash injection from Fifa for the development of the women’s game.

When asked to describe a genius, this fella replied: It is someone who can do almost anything except living.

This is the situation that obtains in this country where the girls’ et al are expected to give their all in the field of play, with little, if any return.

Zifa chose the beginning of the road by making sure that the girls qualified, once the girls qualified they certainly knew the destination. And that the destination is where the Mighty Warriors will be in weeks’ time.

The next question is for you Dear Reader to ask.

Despite the uncertainty, the picture before us, though, is that our Mighty Warriors are going to Brazil to compete.

As for Yours Truly, whether we are going to do well in Rio or not it remains Just an Illusion.

For your views and comments: pmukwazo@ yahoo.com, phineas.mukwazo@sundaynews. co.zw, pmukwazo@gmail.com, Whatsapp 0772682368, twitter @pmukwazo.