Week 9/10 : Malaria and our final Match Day Experience

Because I don’t want this blogpost to be a miserable read I won’t blag on too much about Week 9. This is because I had malaria.

After a restless night on Sunday, I knew with the symptoms showing, that I had malaria on the Monday morning. Thankfully I took the tablets needed to kill it straight away.This meant that I was able to destroy the malaria before it reached its peak.

(Armando’s problem a few weeks back, was that he didn’t take tablets straight away when symptoms showed as he wasn’t sure it was malaria. This meant malaria was at its peak before he started to treat it. Because he was very weak the recovery was then a lot tougher).

I spent a few days doing very little other than lying in my bed and feeling pretty crap, but by Thursday i had finished the medication and by the weekend I was feeling much better. I am very thankful for the quick recovery and to be fit and healthy now.

Having malaria was a big issue for me, but here it is extremely common. Every week a new player has malaria. Other than sleeping under a mosquito net they take no other precautionary measures. In most cases malaria isn’t a big problem because the medication is free and within a few days they will have recovered.

Malaria at infancy is a very different story though. Infants smaller bodies will find it harder to fight the infection, then if they do get sick hospital provision is very limited. This combination is extremely dangerous. Mortality rate of children under 1 year old is 73 in every 1000.

I was heartbroken a few days ago when I found out that one of the workers and a good friend of ours here called Liberty had just lost his very young child. How do you greet someone who has just had their world turned upside down?

This has truly made me realise how lucky I am to have the living conditions we have back home in England.

Anyway. Week 10 was a much more enjoyable week.

This week we gave Arsenal kit away (provided by Arsenal In The Community) to a range of different people we have met at the club. The workers here are always so welcoming towards us and most of them have a shortage in clothes, so we were delighted to be able to give them all an Arsenal shirt. Here is Armando and Albin with a few of the workers.

I was very happy to be back coaching again ahead of GDMs last game that we would be here for.

On Saturday we would do the GDM match day experience for the last time. The opposition was Pipeline FC from the nearby town of Chimoio.

Players arrive at the club house nice and early. Food is served, coaches and players tuck in to their chicken and spaghetti (very different to the usual food we eat here) to provide them with the energy needed.

Shortly after, we have a meeting with the players as we go over tactics and reveal the starting 11. After the team get their kit on, we walk together to our home ground, a short 10 minutes walk away. During the warm up the players all wore the Arsenal shirts that we gave to them. I have to say that the squad was looking good. A final team huddle is the last thing we do before the first whistle.

After a first half where we played well and if more clinical would have seen us take the lead, we kept it nice and positive at half time. Soon after the restart, a through ball is over struck to our striker Datia but he somehow manages to nip in front of the goalkeeper and take a touch past him. CRASH, the goalkeeper wipes him out. Penalty!! New signing Mario calmly slots the ball into the right corner, sending the GK the wrong way. The crowd behind us went crazy. Kids sprint up to the players who are celebrating by dancing next to the corner flag, in a typical African football style!!!

Fans watched the goal from many different vantage points!!

Unfortunately after this goal instead of pushing on, we sat back. This invited pressure from Pipeline who eventually managed to get an equaliser. The game finished 1-1 and we wouldn’t leave with a win, but the performances are getting better as the team prepare for the start of the season.

We invited the players to come out for a drink (not too many of course) at a nearby bar in the evening. Some of them can dance as well as they play football. This was a great way to finish off our last match day here in Mozambique.

We finished the week on Sunday by helping to run a tournament for local kids at Futecho. My job was to organise the fixtures, results and tables. This tournament had a slightly different twist to it though. Three points were available if you won the game, but three points were also available in each game for fair play. After a group stage we had a final between Real Madrid and Argentina. Both teams got 2 points in the game for fair play, but Argentina came out winners as they won the game 2-1.

We have less than a week left now in Mozambique. I am going to do my best to soak it all up, and enjoy the last few days with our African friends!!!

#Mozambique