Toti over 35s give 100% in cup final
Goalkeeper, Conrad Robinho, was superb on the night and featured prominently between the sticks and was called upon on a couple of occasions to make some telling saves to keep the trophy within reach.
THE prestigious over 35 league cup final football stage was set for an encounter of epic proportions at the Crusaders ground in Durban North last Friday night and both sides rose to the occasion and played their hearts out in front of a very impressive away support from Toti.
The Crusaders locals did not know what hit them and I even had a chirp thrown at me in the pub before the game from a bar lizard wanting to know if the Toti Rugby Club supporters had come back to bask in their cup glory such was the sheer numbers of the Toti supporters. The Toti crowd outnumbered Juventus support five to one and literally swamped the veranda and both sides of the park and this was supposed to be the Juventus home ground.
As soon as the game kicked off Dale “studs” Studinski dominated everything in the air while Vishnu Naidoo played sweeper and patrolled the backline professionally with the tireless running of wing backs Roderick Sass and Shaun Holmes keeping constant vigil and thwarting the Juventus offensive. Goalkeeper, Conrad Robinho, was superb on the night and featured prominently between the sticks and was called upon on a couple of occasions to make some telling saves to keep the trophy within reach and the spirits high on the sidelines for the extremely vocal Toti supporters.
The midfield was like a V8 engine in overdrive with the ball shifting from one end of the park to the other as both teams displayed exceptional skill and passing techniques that kept the game alive from start to finish with well orchestrated attacks been executed in front of both sets of danger areas. Mathew “the tyre dude” Powell, Colin Dunnet, Craig “Shaka Zulu” and Mark Bingham took the challenge to Juventus and in my eyes came out as heroes for maintaining the pace with calm composure while Michael Chapman and Avelino Lourenco relentlessly persevered upfront probing for holes in the Juventus defence.
The match was very evenly contested and the pace was frenetic with the so called under dogs, Toti, appearing to gain the upper hand in the first and second half while Juventus resorted to some untoward physical foul play and bad tackling from behind. There was the belief from players and supporters alike that Toti would bring the trophy home just like the Rugby Club did the previous week as the game went into extra time. From the sidelines I could not find fault nor ridicule anyone’s performance because every single player gave 100% and at the end of the day that is all you can ask for and for that I am very proud of Toti. It was just unfortunate that some of the game changing decisions did not go Toti’s way because the referee can only blow on what he sees and even a near pitch invasion from the excited Toti crowd did not sway bad decision making.
The match was deadlocked at 0-0 when the whistle blew for extra time but both sides were still up for this entertaining and thrilling heavyweight bout of football as Dean “the recoiling cobra” Carson came on for Colin Dunnet who was sweating a river of effort. The match surprisingly went on to produce 3 goals in extra time with Juventus scoring twice and Roderick Sass pulling one back with a world class solo run through the midfield. Deon Dunbar, Sipho Hotstix and the legendary Ian Bender occupied the bench and to be frank appeared to be quite happy to stay there such was the overwhelming pace of this top flight game of football.
The final score was 2-1 to Juventus. Man of the match went to the Amanzimtexas supporters.
The season is now over and a big shout out to our sponsors, Studio 88 and Chris Grundy along with our manager, Janos Molnar and club captain, Deon Dunbar for all their behind the scenes effort.
Also a very big thank you to Earl from the Sun sports desk for travelling and documenting the cup final with his camera lens.
