Every once in a while, the gods of football slam down on the scales with heavy hands, tilting it quite viciously in unexpected directions. At such moments, the established order of things is turned upside down and the world literally stands still in trauma.
In the knockout stage of the Confed cup and for 45 minutes of its finale last night, the status quo was threatened as never before.
For forty five minutes, the team in white played the kind of dazzling, flowing football usually associated with their opponents – the boys in gold and blue.
For almost an hour, we were reminded of the essential appeal of football - it's basic unpredictability. We were transported back to other such great footballing moments when teams forgot to read the newspaper ratings before taking to the pitch: Denmark winning the 1992 European Cup and Bulgaria knocking out mighty Germany from the 1994 World cup; Yeo Martial’s Senegal winning the 1992 Nation’s Cup, ahead of the more fancied teams from Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon; Egypt repeating in ‘06 and ‘08 with local players and coach – a feat that took them to the Confed cup where they promptly sent ‘World Champions’ Italy home.
What the USA nearly pulled of yesterday in Jo’burg, would have ranked right up there with Cameroon’s defeat of Argentina in the 1990 world Cup and Senegal’s clobbering France in the 2002 – it would have even more massive than the inexplicable loss of the Magyars (the Hungarian team of Kocsis; Puskas and Hidgeguti) to Germany in the 1954 world cup final.
On yet another pitch, a much-maligned South Africa was giving an impressive account of itself against world number ‘One’ Spain.
We always knew that the South Africans with a well-supported, televised and organized local league, was going to be the next soccer superpower on the continent; we just did not know it would happen this soon.
Whether what they did was a flash in the pan, I rather suspect it is – I don’t see them going the distance in the world cup next year –they at least proved that there is almost no limit to your destination when you’re fuelled by self-belief.
All in all, South Africa, not my favourite country (more on that some other time) has, as we rather expected, pulled off a well-organized and unforgettable Confed cup and more importantly, delivered the important news to world soccer: there are no longer any 'minnows' in world football.
Perhaps this will help convince Sepp Blatter of the utter ridiculousness of his so-called FIFA rankings.
Can they please scrap this foolishness and let football go back to the basics that make it, after horses, the most gambling-friendly sport of all time.
When 22 men take to the field to contest a leather ball, there are no 'gimmes'.
Viva football.