Maebane coach disappointed after defeat

After suffering their third defeat of their campaign in Stream E of the MMK Administrators League, the coach of Maebane Young Eagles, Mr Squera Modaku, remains defiant.

His team lost 1-3 against Madombidzha Arsenal at Madombidzha on Sunday. Modaku was understandably disappointed with the result, as he believes that it was not a game that Eagles should have lost. “We were not supposed to lose this game. We created a lot of chances and we were fighting. But this is football. We dominated them on every count,” he added.

He added that the competition defended for 90 minutes and only counter-attacked. “But we knew they would do that, because they have fast players up front. We made three mistakes and didn’t manage the space behind our defensive line. It was only in those situations that we were not at our best,” he continued.

He added that it was disappointing to end any match without getting the desired result. "We played well, and obviously the aim was to go out and win, but it was not so at the end of the day."

The assistant coach of Madombidzha Arsenal, Mr Ndamulelo Phathela, who was in charge of the team on Sunday when the coach, Mr Owert Mammburu, was not around, has enjoyed a great start to life at Arsenal, who are in second place on the table after their 3-1 victory over Young Eagles. “I have to give credit to the players. We had absolutely controlled the game fully.”

He discussed the strategy and mentioned that after halftime they played a risky game - instead of using a central defender, they kept a formation that was extremely attacking, with four attackers up front, practically playing with three defenders, two centres and four attackers. 

Lucky Buasi of Arsenal opened the score in the eighth minute after beating the offside trap. Eagles equalised 10 minutes later through Aron Mashula. Aluwani Makhumisane of Arsenal increased the margin when he scored the second goal of his team. Thabo Matuba scored his team’s third goal with a marvellous header late in the match.

Date:17 January 2019

By: Kaizer Nengovhela

Kaizer Nengovhela started writing stories for Limpopo Mirror in 2000. Prior to that he had a five year stint at Phala-Phala FM as sports presenter. In 2005 Kaizer received an award from the province's premier as Best Sports Presenter. The same year he was also nominated as Best Sports Reporter by the Makhado Municipality. Kaizer was awarded the Mathatha Tsedu award in 2014.

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