Lerato Ruele lived up to her nickname of Pele after the Brazil football legend when she banged in a brace to propel Croesus Ladies to victory over a gritty Rosina Sedibane Modiba Sports School.
The Greek Queens triumphed 3–0, the other goal coming from a penalty by keeper Philadelphia ‘TK’ Mndaweni, during their Gauteng Sasol Women’s League match at Balfour Park’s Northview High School.
This was the Greek Queens’ third game of the season and they have won two with the other being a walkover when Vaal University of Technology Ladies failed to arrive on time to honour the opening fixture of the season at the same venue.
The first goal came from a penalty that was awarded to the Greek Queens after their Livewire, as Ruele is also known, was fouled in the box. Mndaweni volunteered to take the dreaded penalty and made no mistake.
Soon after scoring, Mndaweni was given a yellow card by the referee for wasting time, the only warning of the match.
In the dying minutes of the first half, Ruele rattled the top corner of the goal with a curler from the right which Rosina keeper Keletso Dibakwane could not reach.
In the second half, Pele tried to lob the ball over an advancing Dibakwane but it went over the crossbar and at the other end Rosina’s Bonolo Seekoej took a free-kick just outside the 18-yard area but also ballooned it over.
Pele, who was without a doubt the Diski Queen of the Match, received the ball a little beyond the penalty spot and Dibakwane left her line to try and narrow the angle but the striker chipped the keeper for her brace.
Balfour Park-based Greek Queens team manager Maria Athanassouli was heard from the sidelines shouting ‘they call you Pele for nothing’ when the striker netted her second goal for the 3–0 lead.
Rosina skipper Thando Sitole came within a whisker of pulling one back when she thundered a shot at TK who parried it over the crossbar for a corner. The subsequent corner kick was initially spilled by TK but she recovered quick enough to grab hold of the ball.
Rosina coach Katlego Kutumela was full of praise for her girls who controlled the game and made some neat passes but could not penetrate the defensive wall of the Greek Queens which comprised five players.
“The opponents were too defensive and that meant we could not just penetrate that defensive ‘Wall of China’. This tended to frustrate my players and at half-time, I tried to give them options of breaking that defence but it was never to be,” she said.
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