Mapeza's Finest Hour

IT'S been a while now -- about 15 years to be precise -- since I leapt from my seat at a football stadium to join the celebrations that are triggered by the sight of the ball hitting the back of the net.

Back in the days before this job -- when my hometown team Falcon Gold represented everything great about football -- I used to lead the squad of cheerleaders in our home matches.

But something changed in this job and after more than a decade of playing the neutral witness, you tend to lose the sense that excites the hormones every time you see balls hit the back of the net.

However, on Sunday all that changed.

The setting was Barbourfields, right in the heart of the City of Kings, and the moment came deep in the second half of the Warriors' final tie in their doomed 2008 Nations Cup campaign.

When a clearance by the Malawi rearguard left the ball in space halfway in the visitors' area, there appeared to be very little danger for the Flames.

But then it happened.

Method Mwanjali is widely considered in some quarters as the best player plying his trade in the domestic Premiership today.

Others believe Mtshumayeli Moyo -- shining as a beacon with each passing week and playing arguably the best game of his career -- is probably better than Mwanjali.

But this is not about a contest but an event.

Mwanjali's fine reputation has not been crafted out of hitting booming long-range drives.

Instead it has been built on a talent which has given him the best close control in the Premiership, the best movement with the ball and the best on-field leadership qualities on the local scene.

In an era when the majority of our players on the domestic scene find the first touch a nightmare, Mwanjali is refreshingly different and such is his talent that he can play either in defence or midfield.

Once this season, he was even played as a central striker by former CAPS United coach Moses Chunga.

So when the ball came back from the Malawi defence at Barbourfields on Sunday, Mwanjali was in the territory that is usually roamed by attacking midfielders and central strikers.

It was a perfect setting for anyone -- especially a player with the power that Mwanjali has -- to try his luck from that distance.

The first-time execution was brilliant, the ball being struck so sweet and with such power it left his boot as if it was a missile that had just been launched from an airbase somewhere in Thornhill.

We all watched in amazement as the ball flew on its journey to glory, picking some height as it whistled past the defence and angling into the corner leaving Malawian goalkeeper Swadic Sanudi both a helpless witness and a sorry victim.

Barbourfields rose from its seats to salute a wonder goal.

And, suddenly, there I was out of my seat, clapping my hands, joining the party and celebrating a truly beautiful strike that will be remembered for a very long time by those lucky enough to see it.

For the Warriors, that was goal number three on the afternoon and it was a remarkable transformation for a team whose sterility in this qualifying campaign had diluted expectations among the fans and, ultimately, cost us a place at the Nations Cup finals in Ghana next year.

Prior to this match, the Warriors had played three games in the qualifying campaign and scored once -- a late effort by midfield star Esrom Nyandoro that went in via a deflection in the 1-1 draw against Morocco at home.

Now they had not just scored three times against a Malawi side that featured nine of the players that played in the team that beat Zimbabwe 1-0 in Blantyre, but they had scored some great goals.

The opening goal by Kingstone Nkatha was a super display of technique -- the striker finding the right balance on his left leg on the turn and just enough strength to steer the ball home.

The second by man-of-the-match Richard Mteki was a superb display of how to pick a spot, on the run, and the third one by Mwanjali was the dream goal that fittingly ended the show for the Warriors.