The
target man upfront is the guy that most South African soccer fans (unlike the
English) love to hate, and absolutely hate to love. Like rain in the summer, he
is sometimes described as a necessary evil, at best.
Often
providing an outlet upfront for long ball-playing defenders lacking in the
confidence to provide incisive passes or deep runs into the pitch, or acting as
the side-kick for the short, nippy little fella in a classic 4-4-2 - or
modernized 4-4-1-1 - the target man is necessary to provide balance and ensure
the system works efficiently but rarely offers an enjoyable experience for the
South African viewer.
I
happened to be at the Orlando Pirates versus Ajax Cape Town game at Orlando
stadium on Tuesday night and calmly sat and observed many of the Pirates
faithful booing and heckling the new Pirates signing, Takesure Chinyama, even
before the Bucs substitute had managed to get a touch of the ball. All of this
changed after Takesure - you’ve got to love that name - provided a great finish
to a neatly worked goal. The “supporters” all left the stadium mimicking his
winding up celebration. All seemed to have been forgotten.
Having
also watched the recent Kaizer Chiefs games against Wits University and Premier
Soccer League rookies Chippa United, I noticed how the crowd was getting on the
back of Kingston Nkhatha, The Glamour Boys’off-season signing who plays up
front as the sidekick in the ongoing Bernard Parker show.
Nkhatha
enjoyed a relatively good start with two goals in his opening two league games.
But, as is the rule for target men in the local game, as soon as the goals dry
up, the fans put their hands up and the substitution sign can be seen all over
the stands. Just ask big Philemon Masinga – boo-boys favourite and the man
responsible for scoring that great World-Cup qualifying goal against Congo in
1997. Had Siphiwe Tshabala not scored THAT goal in the 2010 World Cup, we would
still be forced to watch replays of that thunderous strike every time the
national broadcaster plans to show a major soccer event.
It
almost seems like the target man is seen as the antithesis of the flashy diski
“style”. This is the guy that rarely, if ever, provides an exciting step-over,
or a tsamaya that provides our friends at Supersport Football with thrilling
highlights-reel material.
The
local game is full of short, nippy players full of pace, skill and whole
wardrobe full of tricks and flicks. As I saw in the Pirates game, your Oupa
Manyisa’s and Tlou Segolela’s of this world tended to provide the trickery and,
unfortunately, when the ball came to the target man, he was either too slow to
get past the man or to latch on to a through ball. At other times he
intentionally slowed the game down, holding up play and waiting for support
(which is probably why the coach brought him on in the first place). This
usually causes a lot of frustration for local fans.
Holding
up play is not attractive – it doesn’t quite go along with images an average
South African visualizes when thinking about diski. This usually leads to calls
for the big guy upfront to be taken off for a more graceful player, regardless
of the whether this replacement will be as effective. If the coach bows under
the pressure and answer the fans’ prayers and decides to put in the flashy
player and fails to achieve the most desirable result, fans then blame the
coach for either (a) putting Mr Target Man in the starting line-up to begin
with (b) having favourites, or (c) wasting “talent” on the bench (whatever that
means). And as we all know, in the PSL, job security for a coach is all but a
dream.
This
is where coaching team with a very small, calmer fan base is to a team’s
advantage in South Africa. Gavin Hunt, coach of the three-time PSL champions
Supersport United, is never afraid to tinker with his line-up from tactical or
disciplinary reasons and put in the likes of Glen Salmon or in the current
setup, Nathan Paulse. This is because the small band of supporters is not as
demanding and I should think it is a bit easier to resist pressure from 1,500
or so fans rather than 40,000.
But
that’s South African soccer for you. Beautiful soccer is at times more
important than winning soccer. For some time after he left Orlando Pirates,
Kosta Papic was a firm fan-favourite in South Africa simply because of the how
he managed to get the Pirates team of that period playing silky, speedy, and
slick football unlike the more successful Gordon Igesund and Roy Barreto (both
whom were let go by the club despite winning a league title).
As
a consumer of the game, think to yourself: what’s more important to you,
champagne football or championship football?
By Coach Thomas
Monyapeo
