SOCCER:Andrew Muchineripi
WITH no Premier League fixtures scheduled for this weekend, all attention will be focused on the Coca-Cola Cup, formerly known as the JPS Cup, which reaches the semi-final stage.
Out of the four sides that have reached this stage of the competition, two – QwaQwa Stars (1994) and Bush Bucks (1993) -have already won the trophy, and both have home ground advantage against their opponents this weekend.
Stars host Sundowns on Saturday and Bucks, conquerors of Orlando Pirates in the previous round, host Supersport United, who did the job against Kaizer Chiefs in the previous round to earn their place in the last four. Supersport are attempting to win their first trophy since being taken over by pay channel M-Net’s sports wing, Supersport.
It has been a bit of an up-and-down season for Mike Mokoena’s men from Qwa Qwa, who slumped badly after a good start to the 1996 campaign – they reached the final of the BP Top 8 competition, which they lost to Orlando Pirates. Since then, their form took a major and inexplicable slump, which fortunately seems to be over now.
They should start Saturday’s game against the Brazilians as favourites. Stars have beaten Sundowns twice so far this season, 4- 0 in the BP Top 8 semifinal, and then 2-1 in the Coke Challenge.
But both those victories were in the pre- Reinhard Fabisch days, and the German coach seems to have instilled a new sense of motivation and confidence in the players who have been shoved around quite a bit this season. In the previous round they needed a penalty shoot-out to oust Jomo Cosmos
Sundowns are also the only “big name” club still left in this competition which has a history of tilting the balance toward the smaller guns.
Stars advanced to the semi-finals without scoring a goal in the previous round, they left that to their opponents, Wits, who scored three times, but still lost the game.
They beat them 2-1, with the Students scoring all the goals on the night, defenders Gordon Ewen and Kevin Rafferty suffering the embarrassment of putting the ball into their own net.
Stars coach Peter Nyama will obviously miss the skills of Zairean forward Emeka Mamale, who has embarked on a new career in the Far East, this after going Awol a few months ago.
But Stars, holding the player’s clearance, appealed to Fifa and the Korean club where Mamale was on trial was forced to pay Stars a substantial amount – said to be more than a R1-million – for the player.
They have in the past had the ability to aquire players that the bigger clubs seem to miss, a perfect example being another Zairean Bunene Ngaduane who led Stars to the 1994 Coke Cup title. Realising the ability of Stars managing director Mokoena to unearth these gems, other clubs did the next best thing, they waited at the airport and poached the players en route to the Free State! So these days, Bra Mike waits for his players at the airport.
Supersport United face the daunting task of travelling to Umtata to face a resurgent Bush Bucks side on their cabbage patch pitch at the Independence Stadium in front of around 30 000 partisian home fans.
There is little doubt that Supersport MD Terry Paine is not relishing the trip, despite the fact that the last time these two sides met it was Supersport that ran out 4-0 winners at the Odi Stadium. The Pretoria-based side has improved leaps and bounds under their new owners, and has exceeded even their expectations.
Over the next few years United will undoubtedly become a force in African soccer judging by the way the club is run and the professional way players are treated.
Bucks beat Orlando Pirates on penalties in the previous round and were quite outstanding in doing so, despite the fact that it was a tired Pirates that opposed them on the day.
Although they start the game as favourites, the last time they played a semi-final game at that venue, in the BP Top 8 Cup, they were beaten by Pirates.