Dynamic duo Zwane and Shonga hold the key for Downs and Bucs in the Caf Champions League
Themba Zwane has been one of the most influential players at Mamelodi Sundowns Justin Shonga is showing why he is so highly rated for both club and country
● Themba Zwane not only has a unique way of celebrating his goals but a quick scan of close to 250 professional matches he’s played reveals that the 29-year-old Mamelodi Sundowns attacking midfielder has never received a red card.
This just proves that Zwane doesn’t only show his cool head off the field but on it as well where he’s been one of the key players for Sundowns since his return in 2016 from a season-long loan spell at the now defunct Mpumalanga Black Aces.
Zwane’s brilliant way of carving goalscoring opportunities for himself and teammates earned him many accolades at Aces, where coach Clive Barker was so mesmerised by his dazzling skills that he compared him to SA legend Doctor Khumalo.
The Sundowns midfielder often matches his skills on the pitch with the peculiar way he celebrates whenever he’s put the ball into the net.
The Zombie dance
Zwane calls his celebration a Zombie dance — walking gingerly with his head looking the other way.
“That’s a kasi celebration, man. We call it the ‘Zombie dance’ and my boys from ekasi always urge me to do it whenever I score,” explained Zwane.
The nippy midfielder had three opportunities to celebrate over four days last week. He netted Sundowns’ two goals in their remarkable 2-1 victory over Moroccan club Wydad Casablanca in a Caf Champions League Group A tie and added the winner in a 2-1 triumph over Highlands Park in an Absa Premiership match on Tuesday night.
Zwane, who has 17 caps and one goal for Bafana Bafana, said he was most delighted with his two goals against Casablanca because it was the first time he scored in a Caf competition despite having played 27 matches for the Brazilians.
Casablanca
“You don’t know how much those goals mean to me because the coaches always encourage me to take those chances,” said Zwane.
“The match against Casablanca was key to us in the Champions League. Had we lost or drawn we would not be so confident of going to the last eight. That I’m the one who scored humbles me because I was still looking for my first goal in Caf competitions.”
You really can’t blame Zwane for believing the 2016 champions now have it in their hands to progress to the quarterfinals.
A win at home against Ivory Coast club Asec Mimosas on Friday at the Lucas Moripe Stadium and another against Lobi Stars of Nigeria on March 9 should be enough to take Pitso Mosimane’s side to the knockout round.
But relief for Sundowns could come even earlier than March 9 if they succeed in doing a double on Mimosas, who they visit in Abidjan on February 12.
“That will be great because we really don’t want to leave it to our last tough away match (March 9) to Casablanca,” said Zwane of the team’s plans to secure a place in the last eight.
Zwane, who still harbours the ambition to ply his trade overseas, admitted that Sundowns are yet to reach the form they were in when they won the Champions League in 2016 but said they are not far off.
“The coach had to find new combinations after the departure of Khama (Billiat) and Percy (Tau), but what’s great is that the core of the team that won the Champions League in 2016 is still there.
“We are slowly finding our rhythm with (Guston) Sirino and Lebo (Maboe). I like playing with those guys because we complement each other going forward,” said the eldest of four siblings, three of them sisters.
Other than fighting for the Champions League, Zwane maintains that defending the league title will be great for the Brazilians, who last won back-to-back league titles in 2006-07.
“We’ve won three league title with coach Pitso in the last five years, but what we haven’t done is defend it. We have not lost a league match this season and we see that as a big opportunity to correct what we haven’t done in the past,” he said.
Zwane agrees that winning the league title while fighting for the Champions League will demand a lot from him in terms of contributing more goals as they have been thin upfront, with Jeremy Brockie the only out and out striker contributing goals at the moment.
“I always get on the field with one thing on my mind: to score. If I’m not scoring I have to contribute in terms of moves forward,” said the boy from Tembisa who has scored one league goal in 10 matches this season. ● By his own admission Justin Shonga’s goal count should be in double digits by now at local and continental level.
Three goals in 16 Premier Soccer League games is a paltry return, but in the continent’s premier league, the Confederation of African Football Champions League, Shonga shows a healthy tally.
Four goals in four matches, two in the preliminary rounds and a brace in the 3-0 humbling of Horoya in the group stages nine days ago. More of the same will be expected from the 22-year-old — who comes from a family of footballers — when Orlando Pirates entertain reigning Champions League kings Espérance Sportive de Tunis at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday night.
Policeman back home
Perched pretty atop Group B with four points from a draw and a win, another victory will strengthen Pirates’ stranglehold on the group at the halfway mark.
A trained policeman, one could say Shonga was baptised in the fire of the battlefield. But he knows that he should be finishing better than he currently does.
The four could have been eight if he was more clinical in his finishing.
“All the supporters expect everything to be perfect when we play. They want me to score each and every chance that I get.
“It could have been eight or maybe more than that, but what you give overall is according to the way you apply yourself on the pitch. As a striker I play to score, that is my duty. If I don’t score I should assist.”
Shonga’s ability to get himself in scoring positions is undoubted. The weakness is in the finishing. This is a sentiment shared by his assistant coach Rhulani Mokwena.
His numbers must improve
“The striker has to be positioning himself with regard to having two possibilities, to score the goal or to create the assist.
“That’s definitely the area Shonga needs to work on. His numbers must improve. But with regard to when we don’t have possession, in terms of our movement to create spaces to allow for us to drag and manipulate defensive organisation,
“I think he’s probably one of the best in the league,” said Mokwena. “And also defensively when he has to work to manipulate the opposition’s build-up and try to help us in pressing , he’s unbelievable when he does that. From that perspective Shonga really does put himself ahead of a lot of strikers in the country. We don’t only ask of our strikers to put the ball in the net.
“The first line of defending and reorganising our defence starts with him.”
He was born in Chipata, in eastern Zambia, in a big family.
“I’m the No 8 in a family of nine, three girls and six guys.”
Football runs in the family as all of the boys followed in their father’s footsteps as footballers. Justin Shonga senior played for Zesco. “He was a winger, he used to play No 7. I think it [football] just came from him. It is in the blood.
“Even me I was inspired by one of my elder brothers John Shonga. He used to put on jersey No 12. He inspired me so much that I wanted to do everything like he used to do it. I even have the same jersey number.”
Growing up in Chipata, eight hours’ drive from the capital Lusaka, Justin junior played for Chipata Young Stars.
“A lot of clubs from Lusaka approached me but I never wanted to leave my mom alone. I was young then.”
Mama’s boy? “That’s what they call me back home,” he laughs.
When he decided it was high time to leave home, he left for Lusaka and trained as a police officer for one year and three months and played for Nkwazi FC.
“I’m a police officer back home. I trained for one year and three months. I was playing for a police team Nkwazi in the Zambian Super League.
“That’s how I was called to the national team and Pirates saw me. We came here with the national team for the Cosafa Cup in Polokwane. I did well and I was top goalscorer, that’s what I’d say drew attention for Pirates cause they wanted my services.”
Espérance are not African champions by accident. They are an elite side with proven pedigree. If Pirates claim to belong in that class and want to reclaim their place in the upper echelons of inter-club competition in the continent they will have to prove they have endurance and strength of character to overcome formidable foes like their visitors.
If “bend-it-like-Beckham” was all the rage back in the day, swerve-it-like-Shonga is in vogue nowadays.
Imagine a free kick like that in the mouth of Espérance on Saturday.