Soccer feast for football supporters
The tournament is slated for KaNyamazane Stadium this Sunday.
Revenge and retaliation will be on the minds of University of Pretoria (AmaTuks) players when they take on Mbombela United in the inaugural Mpumalanga Transversal Cup (MTC).
Tingwenyama, as United are known in football circles, have been pitted against AmaTuks in the first match of the tournament. Kick-off is at 10:00.
The tournament is slated for KaNyamazane Stadium this Sunday. AmaTuks have no good record against United. United beat AmaTuks twice (1-0 in the first leg and 2-1 in the second leg) during the recently finished relegation/promotional play-offs.
Stanley Manana, United team manager says they are looking to continue where they left off against AmaTuks. “We are sending a full force squad. The players that we will field on Sunday are those that will be competing for positions in the upcoming season,” said Manana.
Khathuhelo Mbanda, AmaTuks media officer, said they would use the tournament as part of their preseason preparation games. “Following our demotion to the NFD, we lost the services of many players. Coach Shaun Bartlett is currently assembling an virtually new team.
This tournament will assist us to build a new team,” she said.
In the second match, kicking off at 12:00, Mpumalanga ABC side, Acornbush United will take on Jomo Cosmos. Leading Acornbush on the bench will be McDonald “Bambino” Makhubedu, who will face off against his mentor, Jomo Sono.
The well-travelled Makhubedu once had a stint with Ezenkosi as an assistant coach to Sono during the 2012/13 season.
“Bra J is like a father to me. I’m what I’m are today because of him. But on Sunday I will put aside that fatherhood respect for 90 minutes.
It will be nice for me as a student of his to show him what he had thought me by beating him,” said Makhubedu. Cosmos owner and coach, Jomo Sono said they would use the tournament as a stepping stone to build a strong team to compete in the NFD.
“People from Mpumalanga must expect a very different Cosmos to the one they saw last season in the PSL. We were relegated from the PSL in the last seven minutes of the match. We were shocked but we have since recovered. We got rid of all the players who we thought were no longer good enough and recruited new ones. This team we have assembled this season is better than the previous one,” said Sono
The winners of both matches will clash in the final at 15:00.
Tickets for the match will be available at the gate at R30.
