2 days Ago
The Betway Premiership took the centre stage this past weekend, with the first round of fixtures of the much-anticipated league finally kicking off. It took almost 120 days for some supporters to get their football dose, since the end of last season, as the search for the new sponsorship saw the delay in the start of the new campaign. Royal AM kickstarted the proceedings with a 1-1 draw against Cape Town City, as they had to come from behind to salvage a point as coach Eric Tinkler’s chargers looked set to walk away with all three points.
Coach John Maduka made some telling substitutions that changed the pace of the game in the second half and they paid dividends as one of them scored an equalizing goal. Marumo Gallants, following their relocation to Bloemfontein, were looking to start the season on a high note in front of their vociferous supporters who came out in their numbers and played a major role in seeing the ‘sold out’ poster hung up days before the start of the game, as they hosted Kaizer Chiefs. The two teams didn’t disappoint as they went all out, with Amakhosi emerging as 2-1 victors.
Polokwane City beat AmaZulu FC 2-1, as they came from behind to win the maximum points. Usuthu must have felt disappointed after throwing a game they looked in complete control of away, with their goalkeeper, Veli Mothwa committing an error that lead to Rise and Shine’s winning goal right at the end of the game. The experienced goalkeeper conceded in a similar fashion against Uganda in the Bafana Bafana shirt, which lead to him being dropped to the bench for the game against South Sudan by coach Hugo Broos.
Richards Bay will be hoping their impressive 1-0 win against TS Galaxy will be the beginning of good things to come for them this season. They survived relegation through the play-offs last season and finishing 15 will surely be the last thing they want to experience this season and to avoid that, collecting maximum points early in the season will be the way to go. With that brief summary of the weekend's results, have a go at selecting your Team of the Week and see how close you get to the official Soccer Laduma selection.
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