We had a 2-day weekend instead of the predicted 3-day weekend. Nothing went according to plan.
The last time we won a major tournament was when we won the Protea Glen J&Q 2021 Top 8.Nothing has changed since then, as we were knocked out of the Ginoor Community Games Top 8 in the first round.
We came back from 1-0 down, a goal that they scored early in the first half, thanks to Maxwell “Mexican Chillie” Mokgatle stunner towards the end of the second half. Only to lose 3-1 in the penalty shootouts.
We didn’t have scoring boots for the penalty shootout, as we converted only 1 out of the 4. Our equalizing hero Maxwell missed the fourth and last one, with Sibusiso “The Principal” Mtshali and Tumi “Chicken” Ndlovu missing theirs, respectively.
We hit the post on all missed penalties. Bongani “Njection” Maduna was the only one who scored our penalty; this is after Akani saved the first penalty kick from the opponents, and that raised and inflated our hopes only to be disheartened a few moments later.
We consoled ourselves with the fact that we haven’t lost a match in 11 games, seeing that our match ended in a draw kanti asibuzanga elangeni (only if we knew what was about to come).
On Sunday was our league match against the 4th-placed team. This was a match that would see us move from 6 to 5, or even 4th place. But we ended our day in the 9th position, as we went down 2-1 to the host Diepkloof All Stars.
The hosts scored their first goal in a matter of seconds after the first half started. This is after our defender Nathi “Nathi-Rocks” Ngubeni slipped, which gave their striker the chance to grab the ball and put it in the net.
The second one came in after a few minutes via a missed pass to our defender from Mandla “Poposhie” Mlangeni, which resulted in a through pass to the opponents, whose player just tapped the ball into the net.
Nathi came off during first half, and Njection came in. Mosiuwa “Simba” Nthinya was also substituted in the first half after he was injured in a very awkward man-placement, and Simanga came in for him.
Our play was very promising after the 2 changes, and we eventually got a penalty that Simangaliso “Dihno” Magubane converted with ease to bring his tally for the season to 7 goals. We tried to grind for the results to go our way, but it wasn’t to be.
That’s how our weekend unfolded. The league is in recess for the coming 2 weeks as it will be focusing on the internal Top 16. We are not fixtured this coming weekend, but we will be fixtured on the weekend of July 2. This will mean some rest for Obaba. We promise to do better this time around.
Obaba Babo
