KAIKAI’S KICKER: World Cup - An African nightmare

On my kicker tonight, I can’t even kick! Sina nguvu! If you are not a football fan, you may not understand this. But those like me that have been literally staying up all night to follow the ongoing World Cup games in America, I know you get me when I say I can’t kick. How can I kick after that inexplicable elimination of Senegal on Wednesday night? I have heard of victory being pulled out of the jaws of defeat, but Wednesday night, we all saw the reverse, where defeat was salvaged from the jaws of victory!

As an African – and I don’t mean fan – I mean by race, there can never be a more humiliating night in soccer history. It will go down as an intriguing case study involving not only football experts but psychologists, sociologists and even sorcerers.

With four minutes to the end of the game, Senegal was cruising into the next round with a powerful 2-0 lead over Belgium. Then witchcraft happened. Yes witchcraft because it is now emerging that 86 minutes is the black magic moment; the moment everything African starts collapsing at this World Cup. Belgium pulled one goal back in the 86th minute and about 100 seconds later they made it 2-2! After that, surely Belgium would be unstoppable and they were..

86, the black minute? Yes, that is exactly the same minute the Democratic Republic of Congo collapsed before England. That is the minute Ivory Coast surrendered to Norway. Around the same time South Africa capitulated to Canada… That is the appointed minute of disaster for African football.

Again, if you are not a football fan, my apologies for dragging you into this special zone of superstition. But let me tell you how it matters to you. The pattern of failure of African teams in this World Cup is eerily similar! The playing units start so well and even take the lead, only to collapse in a heap of hopelessness in the last 10 minutes. You know what it suggests? Absence of mental strength. And it should be disturbing that that weakness can be geo-located by taking a simple glance at eliminated teams. Let me not rant alone; let me allow a fellow African, content creator called Adika to help explain how exactly I feel…

That is my rant…sorry, kicker.