Nine-man Old Parks U18 soccer teams overcome ETS at home
Despite losing two players to red cards, Old Parks secured a convincing three goal victory against ETS during a thrilling youth league football match Sunday.
Old Parks Football Club secured a resilient 3–0 victory over ETS in an Rand Central Local Football Association U18 encounter on August 23, triumphing despite finishing the game with just nine players on the pitch.
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The hosts capitalised on a defensive error just before the halftime whistle, with Jakin Leopeng punishing the mistake to give Old Parks a 1–0 advantage at the interval. They maintained their momentum as the second half commenced, quickly doubling their lead, when Mkhosi Makhaya calmly slotted the ball into the net.
The match’s intensity subsequently escalated into a highly physical battle, resulting in two Old Parks players receiving red cards. ETS also saw one of their players dismissed, but failed to leverage their one-man advantage. Defying the run of play, Old Parks sealed their victory when Langa Bokang found the back of the net to put the result beyond doubt.
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Masego Maphange, head coach of the Old Parks U18 squad, praised his team’s performance, noting it far exceeded his expectations given their recent struggles. “I think, over the past two weeks, we’ve been having a challenge to compete with the school football, because they’re now playing soccer at school, so managing the workload in between has been really a big challenge. but the overall performance today was great, given the fact that in the past three games we haven’t been at our best. Today, we showed that we are very competitive and superior to most of our opponents in the league.” Maphange revealed that his halftime talk focused on maintaining composure, keeping possession, and avenging their prior 2–1 defeat to ETS by dominating on their home turf.
Conversely, ETS head of championship Nicholas Radmilo commended his players for giving maximum effort, acknowledging that while their game plan was visible, it simply was not their day.
Looking forward, Radmilo assured that the defeat would not derail their standard training methods or overall tactical approach, reinforcing a unified team mentality. “It’s just about letting them know that we are all in this together and that when they lose, we lose. We shouldn’t change what we always do in training and also our approach as well.”
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