A casual idea conceived behind the walls of Mpira Village, on the sidelines of a meeting at Football Association of Malawi in Blantyre last month, has given birth to a bouncing baby called Wafawafa Bonanza.
The two-day bonanza—an innovation of Super League defending champions Kamuzu Barracks (KB), limping giants Silver Strikers, serial cup winners Be Forward Wanderers and wounded Nyasa Big Bullets— explodes into life today at Bingu National Stadium, Lilongwe.
Football has never been fair. And the happenings at the state-of-the-art stadium should be no different because, while KB open the floor when hosting Silver in a lunch hour kickoff, more glances will be on a late kick off between Bullets and Wanderers.
Silver and KB, who gate-crashed the league of domestic giants after staging an amazing Super League championship coup last season, march onto the pitch on an equal footing.
The opener for the bonanza can swing either way, with KB set to unleash their team-work and work ethic, hoping it will prevail over the individualism that has, lately, characterised Silver’s play.
Winger Duncan Nyoni and Thuso Paipi can dominate midfield play for Silver, but the product is not usually desirable. This is where new signing from Ghana, Mike Tetteh, comes into the picture on the job of finishing.
At the barracks, you do not mention KB without, in the same breath, talking about attacker Harvey Nkacha. However, the soldiers owe their rise to the big stage of domestic football to the tactical astuteness of coach, Billy Phambala.
After the opener, wounds of rivalry, which Jafali Chande opened last year when he singlehandedly steered Wanderers to the Luso Television Bonanza glory by contributing three out of five goals over two legs, will be fresh again today.
Wanderers Coach, Yasin Osman, has a job to keep his charges level-headed going in to the derby.
“We do not take last year’s results against Bullets for granted. Our concentration is not only on Bullets. Our problems are bigger than Bullets,” Osman explained.
“I have six strikers and Chande is one of them. He, along side Peter Wadabwa, who is fit, has to fight for his place. What happened last year is a closed chapter. I do not know if we will win but, of course, we want to. However, there are several factors that will determine the outcome.”
Bullets, for a change, step on the turf as underdogs, which is an advantage to Coach Nsanzurwimo Ramadhan. But the pressure is on his opposite number, Osman to reproduce last season’s magic.
“I cannot say we are going to Lilongwe to add numbers. We want to compete and win it. It is part of our training ahead of the season,” said Ramadhan, who can be encouraged by back-to-back wins in pre-season games that saw the likes of Muhammad Sulumba, Fischer Kondowe and Musa Manyenje making the difference.
The teams hope to make K100 million from the bonanza but, at the end of the day, it is pride that the winners will carry home. Bring it on.
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