Leading 1-0 in the 85th minute with their opponents seemingly dead and buried under the strain of a 40-degree-Celsius Premier Soccer League scorcher, Black Leopards still went down 2-1 to Jomo Cosmos at Thohoyandou Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Though gangling Liberian international Anthony Laffor (in the 85th minute) and Bongi Macala with the 89th-minute headed winner produced game-saving efforts of some considerable quality, it was a familiar story of costly lapses in the Leopards defence that once again proved their downfall.
Laffor was inexplicably left unmarked when he scored with a snaking ground shot, and Leopards goalkeeper Thabang Stemmer, who up to that point had performed with much credit, injudiciously charged from his goal for a corner and was caught in no-man’s-land when Macala’s precise header cannoned into the roof of the net despite a defender making a vain attempt to save with his hands.
Yet for most of the game the heat was on Cosmos, with referee Jerome Damon taking the unusual step of halting play for a drinks break in each half — with the 84th-minute stoppage fatefully preceding the dramatic change in fortunes of the teams.
”I suppose in this kind of heat the breaks were understandable,” said an irate Leopards official, ”but I wonder if the referee would have stopped play if he was not parched himself.”
After squandering a number of gilt-edged opportunities in the first half — and several more later in the game — Leopards opened the score in the 58th minute when the persistently lurking Myron Shongwe ran on to a cross from the right wing and guided the ball into the net with some aplomb.
But with Cosmos uneasy down their left flank, Leopards created opportunities to seal the outcome before they capitulated in sudden, dismal fashion.
Cosmos, in the process, vaulted several places up the log table — but even owner-coach Jomo Cosmos, after producing his usual energetic celebration salute, seemed a little dazed and swathed in disbelief over his team’s good fortune. — Sapa