Scoring more of Cosafa challenge
Why is it becoming a tall order for the country’s top-flight league’s strikers to score 20 or more goals in a season?
Each passing season, locating the back of the net is becoming increasingly a tall order with no striker able to get past the 18-goal invisible wall.
But as SportsXtra established, firing blanks is more of the Council of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) football bloc’s challenge needing a regional remedy if its national teams are to excel.
Statistics paint a depressing picture of the supply of goals in Malawi being on a steady decline, much to the genuine worry of ex-Bakili Bullets sniper Ganizani Malunga.
“It is a source of concern that up to now the 28 goals that I scored in the 2003 season have not been surpassed,” Malunga noted recently.
For example, Zimbabwe’s Caps United new signing Ishmael Thindwa won the Golden Boot with 17 goals last season and 16 in 2011 sandwiching Vincent Chinthenga’s 18 of 2012 when he was at Mighty Wanderers.
Luka Milanzi and Chikondi Mpulula shared the top scorer’s award with 17 goals apiece in 2010 while playing for Blantyre United/Blue Eagles and Escom United respectively.
Surely, the biggest victims are the desperate Flames who are having to fast-track up-and-coming strikers such as Frank ‘Gabadinho’ Mhango and place the burden of scoring on his tender shoulders.
Flames deputy coach Jack Chamangwana was quick to give his own perspective to the scoring deficiencies: defences have become tighter compared to the 1980s and 1970s when the likes of Zambia’s late Godfrey Chitalu could hit over 100 goals in a season.
Football analyst Charles Nyirenda cited several factors, including hurried or lack of players’ transition from the developmental structures as contributing to the drought. The game has become too commercial, Nyirenda argued.
“It is a reflection of a trend in the way the game is played. It is about getting a goal and closing the door,” Nyirenda said, warning that Cosafa teams will never dominate continental football if the trend persists.
Scoring is worse across the region in countries such as South Africa, where their top strikers are the likes of Kermit Erasmus and Bernard Parker who won the 2013/2014 Golden Boot with just 10 goals,
“It is difficult playing for a big club against all the not-so-big teams, because when you play against them they sit back and park the bus and try to hit the big team,” Erasmus told Kick-Off.com.
In Botswana, Gaborone United’s Patrick Kaunda scored 20 in 2013 and 26 for Mara Moloi in 2012. Sonito of Liga Muculmana in Mozambique claimed 2013 Golden Boot with 13 goals and just nine goals in 2012.
Tenda Ndoro’s 17 goals for Highlanders earned him the Zimbabwe Golden Boot last season whereas Raynold Kampamba’s 14 and 13 goals in the 16-member Zambia league were enough for the top scorer accolade. But all is not lost.
Realising domestic leagues challenges, the Confederation of African Football has mandated all leagues to, by the end of 2014, adopt the club licensing system that ensures clubs have structures such as reserve teams.
Such developmental teams help groom good strikers.Surely, scoring problems will continue unless attention is paid to the supply chain of talent.
