The Blizzard: Zimbabwe 4-1 South Africa, 1992
Football Ramble
Stak Production
4.6 • 9.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2020
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s episode of Greatest Games, in association with The Blizzard, we look back to a match that represented a symbolic moment in the modern histories of two nations. The Sunday Times’ Ian Hawkey joins us to discuss Zimbabwe's first qualifying fixture for the 2014 African Cup of Nations, a match played in his then-local Harare.
Bruce Grobbelaar, who hadn’t represented his native Zimbabwe for several years, was called up on the same weekend that the Premier League began and a bench spot under new signing David James beckoned. He decided to fly to Harare just three days before the game and, after much political deliberation around his dual citizenship status, he was allowed to play. This strengthened the side’s Premier League connection, as Coventry City’s Peter Ndlovu also played for the country and excelled in this game.
This marked the arrival of Zimbabwe’s ‘Dream Team’, a national side that will be remembered with a folkloric appreciation, as they dismantled a new-look South Africa side in front of nearly 50,000 fans in their national stadium and set their sights on a historic international achievement.
For more stories from the annals of football history, visit www.theblizzard.co.uk to explore their archives that contain over 700 articles of stories just like this one!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The New York Times |
| 0:09.0 | Good morning, welcome to the special TV One newscast. |
| 0:19.0 | White South Africans are flocking to the polls today in one of the country's most historic |
| 0:24.0 | referendums, a referendum which will decide the future of South Africa. |
| 0:28.0 | President of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, has issued his strongest warning against a no vote in the referendum. |
| 0:35.0 | He said any attempt to reimpose a party would mean civil war and a massive new international boycott of South Africa. |
| 0:44.0 | Samar, you see? |
| 0:45.0 | Samar! |
| 0:48.0 | Welcome to the Greatest Games podcast on football, Amble Daily in association with the Blizzard. |
| 0:58.0 | My name is Mark Espeller, opposite me is Jonathan Wilson. |
| 1:01.0 | And on the pod today we have Ian Hawke, football writer for the Sunday Times, author of Feed of the Camille in the story of African football and author of Carolthus of Vuvuzela Dawn, 25 sporting stories that show |
| 1:12.0 | that shaped a new nation, Ian, a pleasure to have you with us. |
| 1:15.0 | Nice to be here. |
| 1:16.0 | Yeah, well you've gone for this game from the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying in 1992. |
| 1:23.0 | Zimbabwe Fall, South Africa won. Why have you chosen this one Ian? |
| 1:27.0 | Because of its historical significance, personally I was really looking forward to it. |
| 1:34.0 | I lived in Zimbabwe in the 80s and was living in Johannesburg at the time of this game. |
| 1:41.0 | So I was very fond of both national teams. |
| 1:44.0 | And for South Africa it was the most important game in their history. |
| 1:48.0 | It was their first competitive match since being re-admitted to FIFA, which they've been throwing out because of a partite in the 1960s. |
| 1:57.0 | And happily they were playing their neighbors, so there was an element of rivalry as well. |
| 2:03.0 | And they went there with a lot of confidence. |
... |
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