Doc’s memory bank: A memory I don’t like talking about

This is a memory I don’t like talking about, but for our readers and football supporters, context is very important and there are things that they need to know in order to understand situations. People see you on the field and assume that everything is perfect. That’s why it is important for people to understand and respect how players feel about certain people or situations. We once went to play Umthatha Bush Bucks at Boet Erasmus Stadium in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha). This was a semi-final, which we won and went on to play Mamelodi Sundowns in the final. It happened that our training session was scheduled for 16h00 and there was a misunderstanding when it came to the uniform, meeting times and logistics. A day before the game, we got to the hotel early in the morning and some of us took a nap because we were tired and the only time we were scheduled to meet up was for lunch. Four players, including myself, were late for lunch. As we walked into the dining hall, we were met with fury and were reprimanded in such an embarrassing way in full view of everyone who was in the hotel. Yes, we were wrong and accepted our fate. These are players from different rooms, which goes to show that there was nothing sinister about our late arrival. One of the most important things in coach Troussier’s training is nutrition, you step out of line with your nutrition and you will be in trouble with that man. He never wanted to see players even slightly overweight or players who ate too much. He’d instruct the hotel to prepare salads and boiled chicken for us, for instance, and this was so boring and some of us enjoyed our rolls. He had a serious go at us for arriving late and then invited us to the table. We just sat there, went through our fruit and the limited food supply. There was no way I would be full from that food, so I asked for some rolls without knowing that there was an instruction to the hotel staff for each player to have at least one roll only. The lady brought me a basket full of rolls and I took one, on top of the one that was already on my plate. The next thing I knew, the coach stood up a couple of tables away from me, rushed towards me and flipped the basket with all the rolls falling over me and he was busy shouting and swearing at me. This went on for a couple of minutes until I couldn’t take it anymore. I stood up, boiling with anger, and told him exactly where to get off! He went back to his table and I couldn’t believe this was just about me having an extra roll. I felt so disrespected because we had reached boiling point in our relationship and I was ready to leave the camp. A couple of senior players whisked me away from the confrontation and coach Troussier told Louis Tshakoane I had to be on the first flight back to Johannesburg the next day because he didn’t need me in his team. We really had our cat-and-mouse moments, but that was the last straw. I remember one of the team Directors, the late China Ngema, calmed the situation by demanding that I focus on the team and forget about the coach. Bobby Motaung was also there and calmed the situation. The coach was surprised to hear me finally talking back and standing up for myself. That afternoon, we went to training and everything went well as if nothing had happened. To my surprise and that of everyone there, I was in the starting line-up and we were not on speaking terms, but he gave me some few instructions and

I went on to do the job. We beat the tough Imbabala team that comprised of the Mugeyi twins (William and Wilfred), Mongi Rula, the late Nigel Dixon and other legendary figures. We scored, they scored, we scored and they equalised and were pushing us hard, with most of our supporters filling the stadium. I took it upon myself to create magic because the game was getting tense and I told myself there was no way we were going to lose that game. I mesmerised the opposition and every pass I made was forward and I would go fetch the ball and give it to someone else. That’s when the supporters started finding their voice and could smell our third goal. It finally came and I was involved in the second and third goals. We won 3-2 and guess what happened after the game? Will see if you guessed right, when I take you out of your misery in next week’s edition.