Ladies soccer qualifies for nationals
The women's first soccer team of theTshwane University of Technology (TUT), Nelspruit have qualified to participate in the USSA (University Sports South Africa) Nationals in December.
TUT Pretoria will host the tournament. They qualified on Saturday when they trumped the team of Emalahleni, 4-0.
Their star player, Romain Mhango, scored two brilliant goals to give her team a head
start. Sibuyi Graka and Thembi Sambo scored the other goals in the second half.
The first-leg game took place on Saturday August 17. Nelspruit travelled to
eMalahleni where Nkululeko Ngwenya scored the only goal to secure their away
match win.
The girls played well, both at home and away, because their mission going to eMalahleni was to get an away-goal(s) and win or at least manage a draw.
“The 1-0 win boosted the women’s confidence going into the second leg game which they also won. The focus in this game was on the defence (not conceding goals) and catching the opponents in the counter-attack,”
said coach Bongani Tshabalala. The men drew their first game 1-1 against
eMalahleni. “The boys did well by getting that crucial away-goal but allowed
Witbank TUT back in the game with an equaliser in the dying minutes.
It was the same scenario in the second leg this past Saturday when Nelspruit netted
first but went on to lose by 3-1,” Tshabalala said.
He also feels that there was a lack of proper preparation/planning and match fitness which led to their downfall as was the case the previous year.
“As a coach I was called upon to prepare the Nelspruit team two weeks before the first game. So I believe that
the team has a lot of potential but management needs to pull its act together.”
