The match was part of the U13 Greater Giyani Local Football Association Youth Premier League (GGLFA). The match, although accepted as well played by Athletico’s coach, Hlawulani Ndlovu, was a setback to Ngula’s ambition to cling to the top of the league. The league is led by Xikukwani FC with 31 points out of thirteen games. Before the Saturday match, Ngula had the same points as Xikukwani FC but was in second place due to goal difference.

Ending the Saturday match scoreless amounts to officially surrendering the league race to Xikukwani FC, who currently dominates the league. Commenting on the match, Ngula’s coach, Albert Kubayi, also known as coach-Mdala, attributed the draw to careful planning by Athletico’s coach. “They had planned everything around our top goal scorer; you could see the way they marked him, ensuring that he didn’t touch the ball,” explained coach Mdala adding that he planned to work on countering situations like that in the future.

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“Their plan worked effectively against us, but that is a lesson for us because in the future we will use two strikers in front to ensure that we always manage to score regardless of how tough the match is,” he said. Meanwhile, Hlawulani Ndlovu, Athletico FC’s coach, welcomed the draw, saying his team did well despite failing to score at the front. Yes, we had our challenges here and there, especially at the front, but overall, the boys did well considering that we were playing against a top team in the league,” he said.

AlNdlovu stated that he intended to work on strengthening the front strikers. “Currently we don’t have strong and hard-working strikers; hence, if you watched the match, you could see the ball was distributed evenly over the field, but when it got to the front, it lost momentum because no one was there to pick it up and carry on,” he added.