Pirates keeps MTN8 trophy forever while a ‘new Lekoelea is born’
Sea Robbers steal the MTN8 trophy forever as Monnapule Saleng seals the fate of the MTN8 while AmaZulu fail to break the trophy drought that spans several decades.
Monnapule Saleng does it again as he delivers the MTN8 trophy early for Orlando Pirates while Ghanaian Richard Ofori ensures it doesn’t slip-off.
Saleng’s spectacular 25th-minute free kick on an acute angle on the edge of the box the Steve Lekoelea style sealed the forever fate and destination of the trophy.
MTN, the sponsors of one of the richest trophies in the DStv Premiership, earlier announced that they were retiring the trophy, and as the Ghosts of Orlando had won it more than AmaZulu FC, could get to keep it forever in their trophy cabinet.
Had AmaZulu won the final, the trophy would then have gone to the MTN archives as the cellphone giant wants to introduce a new trophy for the 2023/24 season of the premiership.
Sounds of a ‘new Steve Lekoelea is born’ reverberated in the stadium as the jubilant multitudes of the Sea Robbers fans made their way out of a packed to the rafters Moses Mabhida Stadium that was literally gasping for air.
The final was much of a game of two halves as AmaZulu started off in a rather sleepy mode, and for that, they were punished much early by Pirates’ man of the moment Saleng.
Saleng single-handedly destroyed the strongest team of the premiership for years now, Mamelodi Sundowns, in the semis of the trophy with his two brilliant strikes that rattled the net and had a hand in the Kermit Erasmus header as he crossed the ball for him to easily nod it home.
The second half of the game mainly belonged to AmaZulu as they woke up from the first-half slumber to torment the Buccaneers in search of an equaliser.
Pirates were also kept in the running to bag the trophy by the sheer brilliance of their man in between the sticks. Ofori made some heroic saves as Usuthu kept knocking on the door and testing the level of alertness of the goalkeeper who will be the only player from the South African Premier Soccer League to represent his native Ghana in the Fifa 2022 Qatar World Cup which hits our TV screens as of November 20 and runs until December 18.
Had it not been for the heroics of Ofori, AmaZulu could have easily put one or two goals over the Ghanaian who stood firm in the goalposts and commanded his soldier from back as the day’s captain of the Sea Robbers ship.
