By Chris Totobela
All roads led to JD Dlepu Stadium on Sunday for the conclusion of the Heritage Day tournament.
Two Makhanda giants – XI Attackers FC and Maru FC – locked horns in a packed stadium to decide the ultimate winner.
Maru had won all domestic tournaments before this clash while Attackers played in two finals in a space of six months.
Both teams started the game like a house on fire, trying to take control of the midfield battle. The first real chance of the game saw Maru’s left winger, Liyakha “Mshishi” Nkohla, break free from the left side of attack and was left one-on-one with the oncoming keeper, but shot narrowly wide with only the keeper to beat.
A short while later, Nkohla found himself unmarked with only the keeper to beat, again, and his shot flew over the crossbar.
Attackers edged Maru in the midfield tussle and created scoring chances, but Maru’s goalminder kept them at bay. Both teams went to the halftime break goalless.
In the second half both sides made a few substitutions.
Maru tightened the screws a little bit and pushed Attackers, searching for an opener, but Attackers’ defence stood firm and their goalkeeper made brilliant saves to keep them in the game.
In an unfortunate incident, the game had to be halted for about 15 to 20 minutes when Attackers’ left back collided with Maru’s centre back and broke his leg. There was disapproval when the offending Maru defender was not sent off.
According to veteran referee Luvuyo “Biemba” Ntlanjeni, the player should have been awarded a straight red card. “I don’t know why the referee did not send the player off as excessive force was used in that tackle, [I guess] he got scared.”
The injured player was removed from the field and offender got off with just a caution.
The game resumed and Attackers took the game to Maru and were rewarded with less than 12 minutes left, when Bongani “Bololo” Hashe pounced on a loose ball after Maru’s goal minder made a serious handling error, failing to hang on to a long range shot from midfield. Attackers took the lead and managed to hang on to it until the final whistle, claiming a hard-fought 1-0 victory and R10 000 in prize money.
Despite two blunders – failure to issue a red card to the Maru defender and shying away from cautioning Luyolo “Pepesi” Matiwane who kicked the ball away after the whistle had been blown against him, the referee’s overall performance was rated highly.
Attackers’ head coach Thanduxolo Faxi, spoke to Grocott’s Mail after the game. “We played well and we executed our game plan very well. We packed our midfield and did not allow them time on the ball. We knew their weakness and we capitalised on that. It is fitting for us to lift this trophy as we are the oldest club in Makhanda and winning the Heritage Cup is perfect for us.”
Faxi went on to thank the team’s supporters who packed the field and extended special gratitude to a Mr Zondani of Joza Stars and a Mr Lombo of Maru FC for assisting the team’s injured player. “We really appreciate their sportsmanship.”
Siya Dumiso of Maru praised his charges. “I think our boys did well considering that both teams are still in the early stages of pre-season. We have seen what we wanted to see and we will go back to training and fix it.”
This was a very good initiative by the Makana LFA executive and should be applauded for this effort. Attackers walked away with R10 000, a trophy and gold medals while Maru received R5000 and silver medals.
Former Maru FC and Young Eagles’ co-coach Lithalethu Tyala was not impressed with the standard of refereeing throughout the tournament. “I think the standard of football displayed in this tournament was impressive, but the officiating was very poor and this is sad as we cannot rely on Mr Ntlanjeni all the time. The refereeing department has been poor for many seasons and needs to be fixed as we witness teams losing games week in and week out due to poor and biased refereeing.”
Makana LFA secretary Akhona Heshu admitted a while ago that there was a problem in this department and that they were working on it.
One of the regular supporters at Dlepu, Sindile Somke, was not entirely pleased with how the tournament was conducted. He queried that some players were not afforded the opportunity to play in the tournament. “This is a heritage tournament where everyone should be afforded a chance to play, but some of the teams were denied a chance to play and look at their squad as this was a pre-season tournament.”
Somke said money played a big role as most teams imported players for the tournament. “This was poorly organised and football veterans were not even included in this heritage tournament.”
Heshu explained the situation, “It was agreed in the meeting that only clubs in good standing would be allowed to play. We will have a meeting and review the tournament and also look at what we can improve going to next year’s edition. We have secured a long term sponsorship from Mr Mzimleni and he promised to increase next year’s sponsorship from the R22 000 he donated to local football.”
