As if the past weekend without live sports was not miserable enough, now one has to negotiate the next three weeks indoors. A perfect recipe for one to slit their wrists, right?
I am not going to do that though. Not with SuperSport having worked out a way to come to our rescue via a number of channels – Relive: showing some classic sporting events. I will watch all of those. Yet, being as old fashioned as I am, I have dusted the cobwebs off my trusty old DVD player and gone through my football video collections.
And boy am I in for a treat. Classic football matches will be my daily dose as I look to keep the boredom away. There is the collection of all the Fifa World Cup videos from 1930 to 2010, which will last me all of two weeks and a bit if I watch one a day.
But I also have some local classics which I am hoping will get my Liverpool-obsessed son to finally realise that good football is not only that which they play at Anfield. He was shocked when I told him of the seven-goal thriller final between Jomo Cosmos and Kaizer Chiefs in that great 1991 BP Top 8 final.
“That was old football,” he brushed it off as he left the house to go cycling. A pity, for he missed out on a fascinating game of football, a match that displayed the incredible never-die-spirit of the two teams as the game see-sawed from end to end.
This was that clash which saw the late Phil Masinga score a hat-trick but still not get his hands on the trophy. Fani Madida scored a brace for Amakhosi, while Doctor Khumalo and Shane MacGregor also got their names on the scoresheet at the old FNB Stadium.
Watching the match yesterday, it was fascinating to see just how much the game has evolved over the years. Take the back-pass rule for instance. Watching the defenders passing the ball back to the goalkeeper when under pressure and the keeper picking it up looked wrong.
But that match remains one of my favourites from the old days. The talent on display that day was just out of this world. Except for the aforementioned scorers, both teams had in their line-ups players who went on to become legends.
Lucas Radebe was solid in the heart of the Chiefs defence alongside Neil Tovey who was so fantastic; his older brother Mark, who sat the match out due to disagreements with Chiefs, never really got a look in afterwards. The late Sizwe Motaung was pretty subdued in the match but we all know what a superstar he went on to become after that.
Ouch, my son has just got back from his ride with a letter from the estate manager with instructions of how we should behave during the lockdown and he says ‘no jogging’. Really? But the health minister said we can jog. Let me get in touch with the manager. With the chances I won’t be jogging, it is going to be football classics all the way. The 1989 BobSave Super Bowl final replay, anyone? – www.iol.co.za
* Matshelane Mamabolo is a South African renowned sportswriter and current regional sports editor of the Independent Newspapers in the Gauteng province.