SEDIBENG.- Vaal University of Technology (VUT) FC was the last team to make the Vaal proud when they reached the Nedbank Cup Last 16.
“The Blue Army”, as the team is affectionately known, made South African history when they stunned the Golden Arrows to reach the Nedbank Cup Last 16.
This was before they lost to Mamelodi Sundowns.
Stanley Nkoane was in charge of VUT FC and was up against well-experienced coaches like Pitso Mosimane and Steve Komphela. VUT FC beat Arrows on penalties to reach the last 16 of the competition. The team had the best talent that could have easily worked in any PSL club’s starting lineup. Ironically, for the past two seasons, no team from Vaal has reached this level. For example, this season Young Pirates FC was the overall winner for the SAFA Sedibeng Region but failed to come close to what VUT FC achieved.
Some of the coaches said this has something to do with the decline of the standard of football in the Regional League. They told Sedibeng Ster Sport that the local regional league is no longer as competitive as the past three seasons. They told Sedibeng Ster Sport that the fact that the Vaal doesn’t have a team that campaigns in the ABC Motsepe League shows the standard of football in this region.
“It is not a secret; the standard of our regional league is no longer the same. The teams that were promoted from LFAS affected the standard of our league. In the past, the SAFA Sedibeng Regional League was very competitive. This is why we now don’t have teams that go far in the Nedbank Cup like VUT did. We also struggled to promote teams to the ABC Motsepe League for the past three seasons. In the past, we used to have three to four teams that played in the ABC Motsepe League. But not anymore,” said a coach who didn’t want his name to be mentioned for fear of being misunderstood.
