Like Cinderella transformed from a princess at the stroke of midnight, Moroka Swallows shed their poise and glitter in the second half of the Premier League against Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium on Saturday night –yet ultimately deserved a share of the spoils from a tense, changeable 1-1 draw
Orlando Pirates squandered chances and came out two points poorer in the intense Premier Soccer League title race after a 1-1 draw with relegation-threatened Free State Stars at Ellis Park on Wednesday night. The draw was nothing less than a calamity for the Buccaneers.
A suggestion by Moroka Swallows to their long-time Soweto rivals Orlando Pirates to stage a Premier Soccer League ”double header” bonanza at Ellis Park on Wednesday night has been snubbed by the Buccaneers. Pirates are due to play Free State Stars at Ellis Park on Wednesday night.
CEO Trevor Phillips has described weekend reports that the Premier Soccer League (PSL) is poised to take over control of Bafana Bafana as ”far-fetched” — but confirmed there will probably be a greater involvement by the professional organisation in the running of the national team.
It had all the ingredients of a heartbreak defeat for Mvela log leaders Wits University as they succumbed to an opportunist 84th-minute headed goal from Collen Zimba to lose their first-round Absa Cup game 1-0 at Milpark on Friday night. Instead there were no tears in the promotion-seeking club’s ranks afterwards.
Moroka Swallows’ Tsweu Mokoro, one of the shining luminaries of the current Premier Soccer League programme, is likely to miss the rest of the season with a torn ligament injury. ”I felt a little sick when I heard the news,” said Swallows MD Leon Prins on Wednesday.
Widely considered the greatest soccer player of all time, Brazilian scoring legend Pele offered South African soccer officials some sound advice on Monday, soon after his arrival in the country. On the issue of who should be appointed as Bafana Bafana coach, he said the matter needed a great deal of thought and planning.
Mamelodi Sundowns cruised into the first-round of the African Champions League after beating Lesotho’s Likhopo FC 3-0 in what ultimately turned into a desultory 10-man yawn at Loftus on Sunday afternoon. The Brazilians’ second-leg victory gave them an untroubled 4-0 aggregate success after Manqobo Ngwenya virtually sealed the issue as early as the fifth minute with the first of his two headed goals.
Bafana Bafana is being run by a bunch of amateurs and the national soccer team has been reduced to the level of comedians. These were some of the scathing sentiments delivered by Kaizer Chiefs supremo Kaizer Motaung in what amounts to a devastating indictment of Safa and its administrators on the Amakhosi website on Friday.
Perhaps it stems from a premonition on the part of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) or maybe it is simply a coincidence, but the only two mid-week PSL matches feature the teams involved in a tense battle for top spot in the league. Mamelodi Sundowns face up to Santos and the Buccaneers are up against Jomo Cosmos.