Pretoria sinks Northrand
Pretoria SAPS soccer team advanced to the final of the SAPS Gauteng Provincial Soccer Championships after defeating Northrand 5-1 at Weskoppies Sports Ground last Saturday.
The Pretoria SAPS team hammered Northrand SAPS team 5-1 in a sizzling SAPS Gauteng Provincial Soccer championships semifinals encounter at Weskoppies sports ground in Pretoria West last Saturday.
Essien Makitla, Zuma Masemula, Frank Mapokane and Klappi Nkuna scored Pretoria team’s five goals with Mapokane recorded his name twice on the score sheet.
The local team wanted to heal its wounds by beating Northrand in the finals after the opposition had defeated them by a humiliating 2-1 in the previous match during the round robin.
Northrand started the match brilliantly and Kgomotso Matong put his side on the lead in the tenth minute, rubbing salt into the Pretoria team’s wounds.
The visitors’ lead lasted for a few minutes, as the local side turned the tables when Makitla found an equaliser in the 20th minute.
Masemula made sure his side took the lead in the 30th minute and the match went into interval with 2-1 in favour of Pretoria.
Mapokane extended Pretoria’s lead in the 60th and further extended it 78th minutes while Nkuna added the last goal in the 87th minute.
The match was initially scheduled to take place at the Kgosi Mampuru Prison soccer field but owing to last minute changes it was moved to Weskoppies.
Another change was that woman football between SAPS Provincial Women soccer team and Pretoria Women did not take place after the local side could not pitch up.
The victory means the local side has advanced to the final where they will have an opportunity to defend the trophy against Vaalrand.
Vaalrand qualified for the final after beating Eastrand 2-1 in extra time following 1-all draw in normal time.
At this stage, the final is scheduled to take place on 31 May at the venue still to be confirmed.
Although the way from semifinals to final was easy for Pretoria but it seems beating Vaalrand will be a mountain climb.
Pretoria will be aiming at paying revenge to Vaalrand as the team had defeated them 1-0 in their previous match during the round robin phase.
Pretoria head coach, Andrew Maema, denied earlier reports that the team would be defending the trophy for the third time since 2011.
He said they had been winning it consecutively since 2010, and this time they would be defending it for the fourth time.
Winning the final would mean the local side had won the provincial title six times, as they first won it in 2007. The losers’ final between Eastrand and Northrand will open for the final match.
