All good fairy tales have a happy ending, as Cinderella Premier Soccer League club Silver Stars discovered when they beat Ajax Cape Town 3-1 in the Telkom Knockout final at Atteridgeville’s Super Stadium on Saturday afternoon and pocketed the record R4,25-million winners’ prize.
And it would be easy to cast Hareiapha ”Simba” Marumo as Prince Charming in this unlikely triumph by the nomadic, sponsorless club after the diminutive striker recorded a stunning first-half hat-trick and brought his overall tally in the tournament to an imposing six goals.
Once hailed as a potential Bafana Bafana star of the future, Marumo had a spell on the books of famed Italian Serie A club Inter Milan but his career took a nose dive when he returned to South Africa and played for Mamelodi Sundowns and Moroka Swallows with little success.
At a sweltering Super Stadium, however, there was no doubt the Free State-born player dominated the proceedings. He was unanimously proclaimed man of the match.
Marumo stunned Ajax as early as the eighth minute when he scored a darting headed goal from Fadu Davids’s cross, and he seemed to seal the issue by swivelling on to the loose ball in the penalty area in the 35th minute to beat goalkeeper Hans Vonk with a snaking ground shot to make the score 2-0.
But the irrepressible Marumo was not finished and he completed his hat-trick soon afterwards with another superbly headed goal.
It was ironic that Ajax belatedly gained a consolation goal in the 84th minute through Bageta Dikilu from the penalty spot following an infringement by veteran Stars and former Bafana Bafana defender Willem Jackson because, in truth, Stars should have been awarded a penalty themselves as early as the 11th minute.
Referee Jonas Nhlapo failed to penalise Ajax, although he saw fit to award Stars a free kick 10 minutes later from what was an almost identical infringement outside the area.
The game was effectively over bar the shouting from a 11 000-strong crowd in the first half, but the game might have undergone a dramatic different course had Stars goalkeeper Wayne Sandilands not brought off sensational saves in the 55th and 70th minute, with a shot from Brett Evans appearing certain to curl into the top corner of the net until it was breathtakingly intercepted.
If anyone came close to rivalling Marumo as the hero of the day, it was the Stars goalkeeper and captain, whose form all season has questioned why he was loaned out by Supersport United.
”They play with a lot of spirit and caught us on breakaways for two of the goals,” said Ajax coach Muhsin Ertugral, ”and they deserved their hard-earned success.”
”It’s like a dream; I can hardly believe it,” said Stars coach Owen de Gama — and he was not the only one with such sentiment.
For the Stars team it will indeed be a rags-to-riches success, with club CEO Larry Brookstone already declaring that half of the R4,25-million booty will be shared among the players. — Sapa