Friendly Between Zola All-Stars And KFC Soweto Turns Into One Gigantic Showboat Fest (Video)

Chris Wright

21st, July 2015

5 Comments

By Chris Wright

Stuck for something to do, local sides Zola All-Stars and KFC decided to have a dust-up at the Nike Training Centre in Soweto, Johannesburg, recently.

After a fairly mundane first minute, the “skills friendly” (yep) quickly turned into one gigantic showboating mess, with all the players showing off their quick feet and their finest freestyle frippery – which is great if you’re into that kind of thing, we suppose…

As an aside, freestyle football really is the pits, and the vain, selfish, “I pwopa dun yoo!” attitude it promotes is gradually seeping into proper football.

You even see it percolating among younger players at shite Sunday League level these days, which is truly depressing for people with misty, water-coloured memories of football being a full-contact team sport.

Anyway, please excuse the old fart rant. Forgot to take my happy pills this morning.

Posted in Skills, Videos

Share this article: Email

5 Comments

  1. Nick says:
    July 21, 2015 at 9:39 am

    I’m South African, and this video pinpoints the problem with local fottball as well as Bafana bafana (the national team). While we have the richest league and best facilities in africa- our PSL teams never make it far in the African Champions League, and the less said about Bafana the better.

    Players are technically amazing, but are brought up with an attitude that celebrates selfishness and showing off their skills, rather than playing actual football. Crowds go mental when a player from Orlando Pirates does a skill move, and the players respond to that. The goal-scoring ability of players is basically non-existant, as that part of the game seems not to matter. If you can shibobo (nutmeg) three or four guys on the way to goal, you’ve already scored.

    The money in the local Premiership seems to be another problem. Guys are happy to draw a salary from the PSL rather than push themselves to try make it in Europe, the EPL or anywhere else. Itumeleng Khune was for a while, in my humble opinion, one of the best goalkeepers in the world, but was very happy to play for Chiefs in a sub-standard league. Much better to be a big fish in a small pond than risk failure elsewhere.

    The days of Lucas Radebe, Mark Fish, Benni McCarthy and Steven Pienaar are but a memory methinks

    Reply
  2. Jacques says:
    July 21, 2015 at 9:45 am

    Speaking as a club player in South Africa I have to agree with Chris…. here if you beat two men and lose the ball instead of passing it’s a good thing but if you sprint to the by-line and lob the ball to the back post it’s seen as a needless waste.

    Reply
  3. punchdrunk says:
    July 21, 2015 at 11:42 am

    I’d like see those ‘skills’ attempted against the likes of Robert Huth. They’d have to pick their legs up from both ends of the pitch.

    Step-overs seem a tad pointless when there isn’t an opposition player for 10,000 metres

    Reply
  4. Gary McCann says:
    July 22, 2015 at 9:37 am

    And not a single player was beaten that day….

    Reply
  5. LukaModerlyRich says:
    July 23, 2015 at 5:36 am

    Will you queens gather your undies and calm down. Its a friendly and the crowd looks like they thoroughly enjoyed it. Nothing was at stake here…and they do not replicate this in the league or tournaments so cheer up a mite, this is our cake and if we want to put ketchup, mayo and vinegar (since maybe we enjoy it more this way)we shall…bunch of old stuffy farts

    Reply

Leave a Reply to punchdrunk

Click here to cancel reply.