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Super Sunday excitement grips

The Queens with all that spellbinding display of netball, ask Jamaica if I am lying, are indeed an embodiment of a skilled team that works socks off to put Malawi on the world map, yet are continuously rebuffed by authorities who are supposed to financially support them. What if the millions of kwacha wrongly spent on (Mpira wa mapazi) perennial underachievers (what is their name again? (Oh Flames) were given to the Queens? Now, this is a team whose coaches work on a voluntary basis without a proper salary structure save for a paltry K1 500 allowance per day, I am told, when the team is in camp in Malawi and a $50 per day abroad. But this is  a story for another day! Yet I do not want to see some of you mitu bii, giving the ladies a hero’s welcome when they return as if  you ever cared about the game.

This is an exciting weekend for football enthusiasts with mouth-watering fixtures at home and abroad. Not to mention the fact that today sees other European leagues in France, Germany and Italy also getting underway.

Here at home, Carlsberg Cup semi-finals pit giants in tussles that are hard to predict. The sponsor, Carlsberg, already set the tone by dressing the teams in colourful sets of uniforms with players’ names emblazoned on the back of the jerseys.

Kamuzu Stadium hosts the first semi-final match between Big Bullets and Lilongwe giants Silver Strikers while in Lilongwe it will be Nomads against Civo on Sunday afternoon. Bullets have the home advantage regardless of previous results between the two teams. But Silver will not be pushovers given their good record in cup games. Bullets should be careful lest they drink tears instead of milk.

In Europe, the thrills started on Friday (yesterday) evening with Man United squaring up against Aston Villa. The match had not yet started as we went to print.

However, attention will be on the Super Sunday fixtures when Man City host defending champions Chelsea in what has been dubbed as fixture of the week. On the same Sunday, Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger also faces one of the toughest managers in Crystal Palace’s Allan Pardew.

Man City opened the season with an emphatic 3-0 at the Hawthorns on Monday, but now they face defending champions who dropped points against Swansea last week. Mourinho as usual deflected attention from his team by amplifying a minor incident involving the Chelsea doctor for delaying Hazard to go back onto the pitch through treatment when Chelsea were already down by one man through a redcard.

While the media was busy discussing this sub-plot ,Mourinho was busy drilling his team for Man City away from the media’s prying eyes. You could say the fixture has come too early given that both teams are potential title contenders. Being a visiting team, I envision Mourinho to be at his obdurate defending tactics because he is more scared of losing matches than winning.

Meanwhile, Arsenal need more discipline when they face unpredictable Crystal Palace. Bolace and Puncheon can be handful if not tightly marked. Arsenal stumbled against West Ham because they were playing a narrow angle in the middle as their wingmen (Cazorla and Ox) drifted inside, thereby creating congestion in the central area where as West Ham were playing a diamond with17-year-old Reece Oxford taming into his pocket, Ozil and Ramsey.

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