Wasteful Highlands Park has no one else but themselves to blame for allowing an out-of-the-game SuperSport United to claim victory in the MTN8 final at the iconic Orlando Stadium.
SuperSport found the back of the net through an injury-time header in the first half from their goal thirsty forward Bradley Grobler. That was SuperSport’s only strike at goal in the entire game, and that sealed the game for Matsantsantsa A Pitori.
Highlands’ keeper Thela Ngobeni was like a man on a sunny beach in Mauritius surrounded by beautiful women as he was never tested but his counterpart sweated to keep his team in the game as the Lions of the North mounted raid after raid of the SuperSport goalmouth but to no avail.
The three striking musketeers of the northern pride, Mothobi Mvala, Peter Shalulile and Lindokuhle Mbatha seemed to have forgotten their striking boots at home as they fluffed golden opportunities. At times Highlands’ wingers would cross the ball but it would not find anyone in the box as support was not forthcoming.
The northern pride’s first attempt in opening the scoring came in just less than five minutes of the game from Mvala, whose thunderous strike was well saved by Matsantsantsa’s Ronwen Williams, who has also become a regular goal minder for Bafana Bafana.
But the uneventful Matsantsantsa were given one opportunity in the referee’s optional time of the first half and an unmarked Grobler inside the box made no mistake with his header to ensure the pride was starved.
The second half was more of the same for the pride with a much more confident SuperSport getting a few opportunities to increase their lead from their Man of the Match, Thamsanqa Gabuza, whose new lease of life and work rate worried the pride’s defenders.
Sports scribes felt Highlands was outdone by their lack of cup match experience. “Lack of experience was evident as the pride males exhausted all their hunting strategies and skills but couldn’t just catch and finish off the prey,” remarked one scribe at the end of the game.
Highlands coach Owen Da Gama had enough ammunition sitting on the bench with the likes of Tendai Ndoro, Reneilwe Letsholonyane and Bevan Fransman. Ndoro and Letsholonyane were thrown on a bit late and could not salvage the game. Another goal poacher, Rodney Ramagalela, was not even included on the bench.
Related articles:
