The Nedbank Cup has made its habitual return to our screens as the biblical story of David and Goliath takes centre stage once again! Tuesday night saw the first David & Goliath clash as Mamelodi Sundowns travelled to the Dobsonville Stadium to square off with minnows, NB La Masia, who are under the tutelage of football legends, Daine Klate and Moeneeb Josephs.
Currently, La Masia sits in 10th place on the Motsepe Foundation League standings trailing the top side by 11 points. It doesn’t seem likely that they’ll be in contention for promotion as their points tally puts them much closer to relegation than promotion, which will come as a concern to team’s board.
La Masia’s run in the Nedbank Cup came to an end as Mamelodi Sundowns trashed them 6-1 with Gaston Sirino scoring a hattrick to wrap up a 5-star performance by Rulani Mokwena’s men. Though Mokwena’s team walked away with a big win, Mokwena couldn’t help but put a feather in the hat of La Masia’s technical team when he gave praises to the visible playing style the team portrays.
“A big compliment to Daine Klate and his technical team. They have got an incredible team. I have not seen them play any other way. I watched four of their games before we played them and they played exactly the same”, said Rulani Mokwena.
GOSS SAVES 3 PENALTIES TO GIVE UNITED THE WIN OVER CITY
The “lottery of the penalty shootout” is a phrase that South African Goalkeepers are continuing to defy. Following the historic 4-penalty saves at the AFCON by Ronwen Williams, his Bafana Bafana deputy, Ricardo Goss, took a leaf from his book as he pulled off 3 penalty saves against Cape Town City to help his team reach the round of 16 stage of the Nedbank Cup.
The teams played out to a 1-1 draw over 120 minutes with Ricardo Goss struggling to deal with crosses from either side of the Cape Town City flanks. With the few mishaps by the goalkeeper not leading to goals, the 3 penalty saves overshadowed the man-of-the match worthy performance given by Siyanda Xulu.
With the two Pretoria giants victorious in their opening fixtures, we over to the weekend to conclude the round of 32 fixtures.