Contrast.
What is the meaning?
Okay. Let's take two scenarios.
Saturday in Zimbabwe, Orlando Pirates are away in their opening group stage clash at the Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo.
They were there to kick off their Confederation of African Football (Caf) Champions League Group B campaign against FC Platinum.
What happened outside the stadium?
Their bus was greeted by throngs of adoring admirers showing their support for the Sea Robbers by showing the crossbones signs to their stars.
What happened inside the stadium?
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The terraces were packed to the rafters with people bedecked in the black and white hues of the Buccaneers.
Such was the strong support, it was easy for the uninitiated to assume that the South African visitors were actually the home team.
Sadly, the full house didn't get to celebrate a single goal as the match ended in a goalless draw.
Contrast that with what happened on Friday night when Pirates played their second group match at home in Orlando.
What greeted them when they emerged from the tunnel onto the pitch was the sorry sight of rows and rows of empty grey chairs with only a handful of The Ghost in attendance as the match kicked off at 6pm.
As the match progressed, the crowd numbers did improve to what looked to be in the region of 10,000.
But it was still a far cry from the full house witnessed at Barbourfields.
We pride ourselves as so-called soccer-loving South Africans, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
What is our collective complicity in the disdain and disregard with which we treat that which is the premier competition on the continent?
What are we not doing right?
Why are we not doing it right?
When are we going to get it right like we see elsewhere?
When I say we, I refer to the clubs, the supporters, the media.
All of us are complicit in our lack of generating interest and showing genuine support to the cause of African football.
Time and time again, we've seen Kaizer Chiefs and Bidvest Wits surrender to early elimination after fielding weakened teams.
At some stage Wits got thrashed by a world-class minnow side from Swaziland, excuse me, from eSwatini.
While we talk up a storm and have raging debates on twitter, they hardly translate to bums on seats because, well, some among us are more passionate about the action from the far away fields of the English Premier League than the football fare dished out from Cape to Cairo.
The pay channel broadcasts the Union of European Football Associations Champions League draw live yet the Caf Champions League doesn't get similar treatment.
The funny thing is that when we have taken this thing seriously we've done exceedingly well.
Jomo Cosmos sparked the fire by storming to the semifinals of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1993.
Pirates won the Caf Champions Cup in 1995, Chiefs won the 2001 Mandela Cup.
Mamelodi Sundowns reached the 2001 Champions League final and won it in 2016 while in 2006 Pirates bowed out in the last four and got to the final in the 2013 edition.
Bucs also reached the 2015 Confederation Cup final. SuperSport United made it to the 2017 Confed Cup final. Our teams have shown that they are more than capable of slugging it out with the best the continent has to offer.
Sundowns have shown that having a consistent presence in continental competitions strengthens the mental fortitude of players.
We just have to change our attitudes, starting with the attendance at Premier Soccer League matches.
We just have to stop this continental drift in order to stop the contrast...