A 10-man PJ Stars shocked Jomo Cosmos when they beat the Premier Soccer League (PSL) team 3-2 on penalties in their Absa Cup soccer match played at the Orlando Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
There was no score in the match after extra time.
The Walter Rautmann-coached Stars lost Sibusiso Nkosi as early as the 29th minute after he was ejected by referee Abdul Ebrahim for a second bookable offence.
Jomo Sono’s team, however, failed to capitalise on their opponents being one-man short, and Stars controlled most of the game.
Sono tried everything he could to penetrate the Stars defence, but the Stars rearguard and goalkeeper Robert Modiadia rose to the challenge.
After the first five penalties were taken, both teams had missed three and netted two, and the match came down to sudden death.
But the Stars goalkeeper won the day by saving penalties from Innocent Ntsume, Chris Katongo, Tebogo Mokoena and Bamuza Sono, while Felix Katongo missed completely.
Swallows beat Dynamos
A brace of first-half goals from former Bloemfontein Celtic midfielder Cecil Oerson gave Moroka Swallows a 2-1 Absa Cup win over a 10-man Dynamos at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday afternoon — but, in truth, the Limpopo province side were lucky not to finish the game with nine players.
Granite-like Thabo Mokgalushi was sent off early in the second period after the Birds had led 2-1 at the interval, but Mpho Maleka escaped a similar fate in the 14th minute after his cynically crunching tackle — described as ”horrendous” by one official — resulted in Swallows defender Warren Lewis limping off the pitch a few minutes later.
And to add to the ire in the Swallows camp, the self-same Maleka equalised in the 30th minute after Oerson had opened the score with the first of his two polished goals in the fifth minute.
Despite playing against 10 men for much of the second half on the carpet-like pitch, Swallows seemed to lose their way during the last 30 minutes and only spectacular saves from Nigerian international goalkeeper Greg Etafia kept them in front.
”It was the same old story which has set us back on several occasions this season,” said Swallows coach Gavin Hunt. ”We dominated the first half and should have scored five goals. Yet in the end we had to struggle to maintain our lead.
”Last week we played Dynamos in a vital Premier League game at the same venue and seemed to have the three points in the bag with a 2-0 lead at half-time,” added Hunt, ”but we suffered a similar second-half fade-out and had to be satisfied with a draw.
”At least on this occasion we held out for a victory,” he said, ”and that is all that matters in cup soccer.”
Bucks knocked out
Witbank Spurs caused an upset in the Absa Cup tournament on Sunday when they put out PSL team Bush Bucks 1-0 at the @lantic Stadium.
The winning goal came just two minutes before the break, courtesy of a free kick from Given Sibanyoni.
Bush Bucks were simply awful and were never really in the game. Even when the home team were reduced to 10 men in the 75th minute when Joseph Phahlane was sent off after receiving his second yellow card of the match, the visitors were simply unable to take advantage of the situation. — Sapa