By Chris Totobela
The Hollywood Bets Regional League local derby between rivals Maru FC and XI Attackers at Rhodes’ Great Field at the weekend, lived up to expectations.
A decent crowd witnessed the exciting clash.
The game started at a reasonable pace with Attackers making their intentions very clear from the first whistle. They circulated the ball well and had Maru chasing shadows for the first 25 minutes of the game, but were guilty of being indecisive in the last third of the field.
Maru absorbed the pressure and were fortunate when they caught the visitors with a quick transition. Saxola Mdambatya, who was one of two players in an offside position, hesitated a little as he waited for the whistle to sound. But when it did not, he played on and was able to scramble the ball home to open the scoring.
Shaken by the goal, Attackers took the game to Maru but kept on taking wild or tame shots at goal until the referee blew for halftime.
In the second half, both teams made a few changes as Attackers continued to dominate the game. The spectators kept on voicing their dissatisfaction at the match officials’ inconsistency.
Maru’s left back Luyolo Matiwane started a move on the left and completed it with a pin point cross that was headed home by substitute Aviwe Payi to double the score for Maru and took the wind out of the opponents’ sails.
Attackers refused to drop their heads and kept on knocking and were denied three legitimate penalties while Maru was also denied one themselves.
The referee blew his final whistle and Maru walked away with all three points and bragging rights.
Speaking to Grocott’s Mali after the game, Maru FC head coach Siya Dumiso admitted that Attackers played better than his team. “Attackers played all the football and we knew that they were going to come at us. We allowed them to have the ball as we knew that they will get excited and naïve and that is how we caught them. They have a special talent in that Anga Shwempe boy, he is a special talent and he tore my midfielders apart.”
Dumiso also shared the team’s future plans. “Our plan is to win all the remaining games, move to play-offs and win our region before going to the provincial play-offs. We can go all the way. Makhanda has a lot of talent and we deserve to have a team in the Motsepe league.”
Attackers’ head coach Luis Ntlanjeni was pleased with his boys’ performance, but not happy with their inability to convert chances into goals. “We played them out of the park but failed to score. I hate talking about referees, but as long as this referee takes charge of Maru games, local teams will never get any positive results against Maru. My players were kicked all over the field but no cautions were shown to Maru. Instead he kept on talking to them, asking them not to kick our players. My players were often cautioned.”
Ntlanjeni complained that the scorer of the first goal had been offside, but the goal stood. “We had clear penalties that were not given to us, a player extends his hand and blocks the ball and the referee signals play on. Secondly, Anga was tackled from the back in the box and [the referee]signalled play on, and lastly, my captain was completely taken out inside the box and he ignored it.
“I don’t know why this man is still officiating at this level because he simply cannot officiate and he is going to cost a lot of teams. I don’t see any of the local teams beating Maru with these officials at the helm. This is why Maru always struggles in play-offs where the officials are neutral.”
Looking into the future, Ntlanjeni said his team needed to make sure they don’t drop any more points in order to finish in the top four. “We need to beef up our squad with good quality strikers. Our management is doing everything to motivate our players and we need to reward them with good results.”
