You can still believe in magic
And even football fans must have been inclined to agree as the last couple of weeks have been dominated by stories about racism, homophobia, financial collapse, player disputes and various other manifestations of the ugly side of the beautiful game.
Of course, when it comes to football, we tend in this country to be Anglo-centric to a fault, which perhaps explains in part why, almost lost amid all the weeping and wailing about the state of the game, was one of the most uplifting sports stories of this or any other year.
Sadly, its emotional power derived in huge measure from one of the worst bad news stories of them all — the wiping out of a generation of elite Zambian footballers when the national team’s plane crashed into the sea off Libreville in Gabon in 1993.
Last Sunday, Zambia were back in Libreville, this time contesting the Africa Cup of Nations final against hugely fancied Ivory Coast and, against the odds, coming out on top after a dramatic penalty shoot-out to win the trophy for the first time. And like Matt Busby’s Manchester United winning the European Cup in 1968, 10 years after the Munich disaster, Zambia’s victory in Libreville had a resonance which extended way beyond the field of play.
To be frank, the game itself had been nothing to write home about, 120 minutes of stalemate notable mainly for Didier Drogba ballooning a penalty over the bar and the general excellence of Zambian goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene. But what happened when both sides were put on the spot was unforgettable.
We know a bit in this country about the joy and heartbreak of penalty shoot-outs but, with so much riding on the endgame in Gabon, one can only imagine what the folks back home in Zambia were going through as 14 penalties were taken and scored.
Actually, one of those had been saved by Mweene but was scored at the second attempt. Coming on top of the fact that Zambia had lost the toss and were, therefore, from the fifth penalty onwards, taking their spot-kicks just to stay in the game, it all made for incredible edge-of-the-seat drama.
And throughout it all, the stadium microphones picked up the eerily beautiful singing of the Zambian bench where the subs and staff stood with their arms around each other, swaying gently and sometimes beseeching the heavens with upraised eyes and arms.
The sense that they were calling on the support of their lost brothers was unmistakable, those sons of ’93 to whom they had paid their respects earlier in the week in a poignant ceremony at the beach close to where they had lost their lives 19 years before.
Meanwhile, the tension of the shoot-out was reaching breaking point, but only after Mweene had coolly stepped up to put one away himself. Then, with the score locked at 7-7, he saved from Manchester City’s Kolo Toure — only for Rainford Kabala to fluff Zambia’s golden opportunity, the entire bench by now on its knees. But they got another chance: Gervinho missed for Ivory Coast and this time, Stophira Sunzu scored .
As it happens, I have a good friend in Dublin who has visited Zambia and retains close connections with the country so, as soon as the ball hit the back of the net, I rang him to get his verdict. It turned out that, unable to get Eurosport, he was following the drama online — and was still at least two penalties behind the times. But he simply couldn’t bear the tension any longer. “It was Ivory Coast , wasn’t it?” he said, fearing the worst. “No,” I said, “Zambia”. He could hardly have whooped louder at the sight of O’ Leary sticking the ball in the net in Genoa. Well, okay, maybe a slight exaggeration there but, by that stage of events in Libreville, the vast majority watching must have been feeling a little bit Zambian too.
For what it meant to the people who mattered most, I turned later in the week to a blog on a Zambian website, posted by a fan in Lusaka .
“I stood at the roadside like a kid,” he wrote. “I screamed when they passed by in the army truck from the airport!! !!!!Our soccer stars were back home with the Afcon Cup!!
“I was only five in ’93 but I still remember the coffins, the people weeping in the streets!! The whole nation was on its knees. The president couldn’t hold it together and cried loudly whilst giving his speech! We all cried! And to think my birthday was on that tragic day, its saddening!! And the players knew it whilst playing at the 2012 finals!! It was a written script!!
“And just like we stood along the 20km great east road waiting for the dead bodies of our heroes in ’93, we did it as well in 2012. Except this time, we finished the mission of our dead heroes! They were one point away from qualifying for the ’94 US World Cup. And with the way things went for us at the Africa cup in 2012, I can’t help but believe we’re going to Brazil in 2014!!”
I think we can forgive him his exclamation marks.
Meanwhile, Wayne Rooney’s reaction to the result in Gabon was to go on Twitter and slag off the Toure brothers of Ivory Coast and Man City. Deep sigh.
