Pride fails to cling tightly to their kill
ALEXANDRA – Assistant coach Zico Mphela believes the pride should have defended well if it had wanted to cling to its narrow 2-1 lead.
A pride of lions from Cosmos City in the northwest of Johannesburg failed to claw tightly onto their dying prey as they allowed an Alex outfit to have a seat at the dining table for a share of the spoils.
Cosmos City’s Hungry Lions FC thought they had the ‘kill’ already in the bag as they led with a slender 2–1 lead, only to allow Alexandra’s Amajananda FC to claw back into the game for a final score of 2–2.
Amajananda were the first on target when Thokozane Fikizolo’s beautiful volley rattled the back of the net in just under 10 minutes of play. This was through the stylish play of Mnikelo Kraqa who whizzed past a spaghetti of defenders before neatly laying the ball off for his counterpart to complete the job.
This was despite the menacing pride’s domination of the first half with a number of missed chances. Amajananda, which is slang for ‘the boys’, had that solo clinical strike in the first half and they made it count.
But the Amajananda strike did not dampen the spirits of the hungry pride as they continued to dominate the game with their unrelenting runs into the opposition’s box. And it was a brilliant header from the pride’s defender Austin Phetla that saw the game level at 1–1 just before halftime. But the halftime break only came after Fikizolo fluffed an opportunity to put his side back into the lead.
The pride started the second half in the same fashion as they did in the first, making several telling runs into the box but not making them count. The pride’s Lodwe Koto finally found the back of the net from an assist from the previous scorer, Phetla to put his side two up.
The pride continued to bombard the goalmouth of Amajananda in a bid to kill off the prey, with one such glaring miss falling the way of Thabang Seemela who ballooned his one-on-one effort with the keeper.
In the dying minutes of the 90, Amajananda’s Mthetheleli Dlamini levelled matters once again before Fikizolo could have earned himself a brace and won the game for Amajananda if he had not ballooned his effort over the crossbar.
Visiting assistant coach of the Hungry Lions, Zico Mphela, who will host another Alex side Black Poison this coming Sunday, said the pride had no one else to blame but themselves for letting go of their dying prey.
“We should have defended well to cling to our narrow 2–1 lead. I can’t count the missed opportunities as they are nothing but spilt milk,” he concluded.
