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Sat May 26 10:54:21 SAST 2012

A Killer in all but instinct

BBK | 07 September, 2010 00:05

BBK: Trust all is well with you my little brother from another mother.

Back in the day there was an animal called Apla. That is, the Azanian Peoples' Liberation Army. It swore by one slogan: One settler, one bullet.

Apla was an armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress. The PAC was - eish, it still exists, so let's make that "is" - an organisation that believed (again, if it still exists, then best we make that "believes") in driving the settlers into the sea.

Apla must have figured that if driving settlers into the sea became too daunting a task, settling the issue with a bullet for each settler would ensure Africa remained for Africans.

If your nickname is Killer then surely it must be because you are lethal in front of goal, and the burden of killing off the opposition becomes the expectation of the nation where you are concerned.

This expectation becomes greater especially when Bafana Bafana play their opponents off the pitch. That was the case on Saturday night at Mbombela against those mini-Nigerians, Niger.

I think all Nigerians who were not physically imposing enough, like say the Ebos, were banished to Niger and that is how that country came to be.

Killer's propensity for taking an Okapi knife to a gun fight is developing into a growing and worrying habit.

Faced with the choice of an automatic assault rifle, or a knife, he chooses a knife.

It is as if he has secret ambitions of becoming an Apla soldier, with a slogan of one game, one goal.

If you really want to be a modern-day Apla cadre, I am sure Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe would not begrudge you switching the slogan to one match, one hat-trick.

Against Niger you could have come out of the match three goals to the good.

Against Ghana, the solitary strike you put in the back of the net should have been your third goal of the game.

Against France, a similar scenario played itself out.

You are familiar with the lay of the land. You know where to position yourself. Otherwise all these passes and crosses wouldn't be finding you.

Find your finishing touch. Find your killer instinct, Killer. Your goal on Saturday was a classy, cheeky chip executed calmly.

It is all in the technique, which you can continue to fine-tune. The better you become at it, the easier it will become for you to sell yourself.

You want your agent to be able to say my guy is Mr Goals.

Come on Killer man. You can do it. You know how to.

Perhaps you have too good a heart to inflict pain on the enemy.

But a man called Killer must have a killer instinct.

Of course, only an anti-Katlego Mphela campaigner would suggest that you were the only resident of "Wasteland".

Anyone who watched Siphiwe Tshabala blast the ball across the face of goal is still laughing at that comical stance.

If he was trying to score how the heck did Shabba end up with such a horrendous miss?

The result of that shocking strike was a throw-in, not even a goal kick.

If he was crossing, who was the intended target? There were many more misses on the night, but this is addressed to you because you are Bafana's main striker. Start believing this. A bit of arrogance on the field is a prerequisite for a worldclass striker.

The lesson for the whole team is that only a fool gets thirsty when there is an abundance of water.

But the zebra-striped seats are empty at the Jurassic Park commonly known as Mbombela stadium and, thankfully, 2-0 against Niger means three points.

Egypt and Sierra Leone drew 1-1, which means South Africa are on top of Group G.

Killer, here's hoping that your goals will keep us at the summit of the group throughout the qualifying campaign for the Gabon-Equatorial Guinea 2012 event.

Big brother, BBK

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