Giant-slaying University of Western Cape (UWC) travelled to Johannesburg for a date with Hollywoodbets Super League log leaders JVW looking to continue from where they left off in their previous fixture.
The Capetonians were fresh from causing a major upset by beating the red-hot reigning league champions Mamelodi Sundowns, not just by one goal – but two nil in the Mother City.
The Blues had a slow start to the season and are slowly getting into their rhythm – after the clash with the Brazilians, they have now become the team to watch.
As expected, they gave as much as they got against JVW who were playing in front of their vocal fans.
But coach Thinasonke Mbuli’s charges shut out all the noise and focused on the job at hand – and they did it very well.
Unfortunately, neither side managed to shake the net and at the final whistle it was nil-nil.
“It was tough as expected. They are currently log leaders and you could see from this game that they are not leading the table by chance. But the pitch didn’t make things easier for us as it was wet and heavy which made our play a little bit slow and lacking intensity in the first half. And that is why we made that’s why we had to make those subs quickly after a second half just to bring the energy to the game and I think it worked. In the second half we looked much better, pity we could not score,” said Mbuli after the match.
“And because of that, I’m not happy because we are a team that normally carves out chances, and today, we didn’t create much hence the score is nil-nil. We failed to come up with situations where we were faced with the goalkeeper and at the very least miss, we don’t normally play like this.”
UWC is the first side to steal a point from JVW this season after the hosts registered five wins on the trot.
Adding to the result against Sundowns, this will be a huge morale booster for the Blues when they face a First Touch team that has not kicked off their 2022 campaign in a manner they would be proud of.
After six rounds of fixtures, the Limpopo side has won two, while losing and drawing just as many to be on eight points in 11th position.
“I don’t want us to take them for granted because they didn’t start well. but we know they are a strong team that has a good coach, we are expecting another tough match. But luckily, we are playing at home, in familiar surroundings and we are gunning for maximum points because our target is to do better than last season. We finished at number three so we can’t be number four or number five – we also can’t be number three again, so we must try and push for number two or one,” added Mbuli.
Adding to the pressure of performing well in the Hollywoodbets Super League, UWC will also be involved in USSA games as well as Varsity Football, where they are the defending champions (they beat Tuks 4-3 on penalties after a goalless draw in regulation time).
Last season, they believe fatigue got the better of them playing in all three competitions.
But this time, they are more prepared to compete on all fronts.
“Because of the set-up of the tournament last year, after Varsity Football we were tired as we played every day – we were using the same players in the League too. But this year we have a couple of new players that are not students, and some of them are doing matric, so after Varsity Football we will have fresh legs, and we will still be able to compete in the Hollywoodbets Super League,” concluded Mbuli ahead of their return to Cape Town.
By Matlhomola Morake
