Maritimo maintain winning streak
Our plan to be in the top four is on track as we keep on winning, says Maritimo head coach.
Club Sport Maritimo defeated Tshwane United 2-0 on Saturday in a sizzling Safa Tshwane Regional League match at the Maritimo sports ground, in Hatfield.
The victory was the third in a row as Maritimo previously beat Liverpool 4-2 and one of the strongest teams in the league, Ama-Lions, 1-0 respectively.
In the recent match, Maritimo striker Rufus Sackie Jr opened the scoring in the 20th minute. This was after Naphathan Motolla beat Tshwane United’s defence and passed the ball to Sackie Jr on the right wing. He fired the ball into the top left of the goal post. The match went into halftime 1-0 in favour of Maritimo.
In the second half, Maritimo extended the lead, thanks to Obakeng Rathebe. Sackie Jr’s perfect through pass found Rathebe in the 18-area and he outsmarted Tshwane United goalkeeper Chriswell Chauke.
Maritimo head coach Selby “Sfuba” Sihlangu said he was happy that his side kept on winning.
“I am excited that the boys now know how to play and score goals,” Sfuba said.
He said the results showed that the players implemented the skills learnt from training.
The game was difficult as Tshwane United were fighting to avoid relegation, he said.
“The game was not easy as United was fighting for survival.”
United head coach Koketso Phiri said he was disappointed about the loss.
He said they had themselves to blame for the loss because they wasted many goal scoring opportunities.
“We got almost five clear goal-scoring opportunities but we wasted all of them,” he said.
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Mentioning a few wasted goal-scoring opportunities, he said the first opportunity arose in the 15th minute when Nimrod Dlamini came face-to-face with the goalkeeper Miguel Furriel, who managed to snuff out the danger.
“Dlamini made the same mistake in the 25th minute.”
Phiri said the third wasted opportunity was when Casper Moropa’s header missed the back of the net in the 42nd minute.
“I was expecting to win this game after we beat City Stars FC 2-1 last weekend.”
He said their ultimate goal for this season was to save their status.
“We would like to be in around 10th position in the log.”.
According to the recent log standings, Maritimo maintained their eighth position with 24 points in 17 matches. They share the same points with Touch Football Club in position seven, Ama-Lions Football Club in sixth and Pretoria Athletic Football Club in position five.
The three teams are ahead of Maritimo because of the goals difference in their favour. While Maritimo has a goal difference of three, Touch, Ama-Lions and Pretoria have four, six and eight respectively.
Playing a total of 15 games each to date, gives both Ama-Lions and Pretoria an advantage over Maritimo and Touch, who have both played 17 matches. Winning the two games in hand can award both Ama-Lions and Pretoria six points each, which will keep them ahead of Maritimo but losing can make it easy for Maritimo to realise their goal of completing the season in the top four.
According to the fixture, Maritimo will face Touch Football Club at the Temba stadium on Saturday at 15:00, while United play Mike One Stars Football Club at the TCS sports ground on the same day and same time.
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