Pretoria Ally’s Tigers lose to Ezenkosi

Duduza – The visitors, Pretoria Ally’s Tigers travelled over 141km on Saturday to the Duduza Stadium to lose against the experienced Jomo Cosmos (Ezenkosi).

Ezenkosi opened the scoring 11 minutes into the game with a header goal from the captain, Angel Lebahi.
Ezenkosi made the Tigers play half-ground yet failed to create more chances during the first half as the Tigers had put up a strong defence.

As hot as the day was, the game paused after 30 minutes for a water break. Just before the break, Ezenkosi tried extending the league but the Tigers’ goalie, Mmamaremela Mogano didn’t allow the goal which led to a corner for Ezenkosi.

The game went to half-time with Ezenkosi leading 1-0. It was a difficult second half as Ezenkosi seemed to have lost confidence and the Tigers were stronger.

The Tigers tried creating chances and Lungelo Khoza (Ezenkosi goalie) saved three goals in less than two minutes.

Twenty minutes into the second half, Timmy Kushata extended Ezenkosi’s lead with a good assist from Zuko Gxabuza. This goal got the fans to stand up and start singing, which also boosted the players’ confidence.

The goal had brought confidence back to Ezenkosi and they fought hard to score the third and final goal of the game.

The goal was scored by Zuko Gxabuza who didn’t give up though Mogano had already saved two goals in those few seconds.

Puseletso Koshane, the performance analyst of the Tigers said, “Football is a game of moments, we tried our best to stick to the plan. Unfortunately, we conceded early in the first half. We tried our best to keep the scores as they were.

“We gave them a run for their money but then every time we tried to come back, they got the goal.”
Koshane said they had about three corners in eight minutes.

“We were coming, we were on top of them but one mistake, they capitalized. With the third goal as well, we tried to push but as I said, it’s a game of moments, so we were just unfortunate and their quality spoke,” he said.

“We could’ve taken the shots, we would get there but we wanted to get too close and didn’t take the shots and that’s what caused us the game,” he said.

Koshane said he’d like to give credit to their goalkeeper coach as Mogano did well in the game though having conceded three goals.

He said Mogano was in good form in the previous game when they played Mike 1 Stars as he saved a lot of goals and that’s where they think the confidence comes from.

“He was just unfortunate today as he came in, Ezenkosi scored and that could eat up your confidence as a goalkeeper. But he tried his best and he showed that with his experience that he can stay in the game even after conceding a goal,” Koshane concluded.

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Winning coach, Jomo Sono said, “Though we scored in the first half, we didn’t play well. We regrouped in the dressing room and played well in the second half.”

Sono said in the dressing room, the players saw him angry for the first time.

“I was fighting with them, very strong, it was the first time they saw me like that. I was very upset, we could’ve scored close to three goals in the first half but messed up our chances,” Sono said.

He said the game was a game of two halves.

“First half, we played 40%, second half we went flat out,” Sono said.

Ezenkosi is still in position six with 54 points while the Tigers are in position 17. Sono said they’ll fight till the end as they are now six games to the end of the league.

“We’ll keep winning, the number one team still has to play us so we are confident that we’ll emerge victorious,” Sono said.

Ezenkosi PRO Sizwe Nqubezelo said, “I’m happy that the boys managed to score the three goals. The 12th man (supporter) was also on fire.

The 12th man was able to bring back the momentum, especially when the confidence was low, there was a time when the opponents nearly equalised but they couldn’t as our boys fought.”

Ezenkosi will travel to Soshanguve on March 23 where they’ll face Mike-1-Stars FC at the Giant Stadium.