John Bocco,Our Foreplay football and The genesis of his Crucification.

Despite being the most consistent striker in the domestic league for the past four seasons, John Bocco always has a hard time in the national team. Having neither played for Simba nor Yanga, he has very few voices to defend him. Always an easy target for fans ridicule whenever Taifa Stars misfire, he reached his nadir when fans booed his every touch and thereafter ‘retired’ from the national team.

He had a change of heart in the Kim Poulsen era and was soon back in the squad. Mbwana Samata has restricted him to just a few cameo appearances. In the absence of Samatta and Ulimwengu in the CHAN competition, he is expected to lead our attack. Unlike Samata and Ulimwengu who are more aggressive and can effectively play outside the box, Bocco is a limited target man who is more effective in the box.He is not good at pulling away from his marker.He essentially lacks the intrinsic skills of drawing away defenders from the box.

Bocco can play outside the box as we saw in the second half against Uganda. He can hold up play but at a much slower pace, his dribbling skills are restricted to a basic level meaning against quality opposition he is ineffective outside the box. Bocco, despite his height has not learnt the art of playing with his back to the goal.Due to his slow turns he is only deadly when the ball is delivered in front of him while facing the goal.

He gets crucified for his lack of goals in the national team even when he hardly gets the supply.At times he wastes chances just like any other striker but the strong criticisms from fans and pundits is very subjective and only serve to affect his performance. Away from the demeaning simba and Yanga fans in Dar,he has had two wonderful cecafa tournaments in Nairobi and Kampala.

He rarely creates chances for himself but he can bang them in given good supply. If Bocco is that bad,as some fans and pundits claim how comes he has scored the most number of goals in the past four seasons in our domestic league? At Azam he is fondly known as JB19 for his jersey number and the 19 goals he scored in the 2011-2012 season to emerge the top scorer.

At times it is not fair to crucify individual players just because a team is not performing according to our expectations. Taifa Stars, at best, plays lots of foreplays passes with no penetration at all.Foreplay without penetration is nothing in football,football is about penetration and goals.How is Bocco supposed to carry the cross for our collective failure?