CURSE OF THE CROSSBAR Angels stumble as Chadibe edge thriller
IN a breathless, brilliant game of football, Eleven Angels’ push for the playoffs suffered a painful, potentially disastrous setback on Saturday, the high-flyers falling to a 1-0 defeat in Chadibe.
Incredibly, in a tense, highquality match bursting with drama and moments of magic, the Premier League hopefuls hit the crossbar four times in the first half.
When they did get their shots on target, Angels found an inspired John Mogale in the way, in a rare first-half foray into opChadibe’s third-choice keeper position territory, Chadibe strikputting in the performance of his er, Allen Diwere, somehow got life to repeatedly deny the away enough elevation on his scooped side and all but guarantee his shot to lob Keletso Lekuni on his team Firstline.divisionfootballnext season. From then on, it was the
Following a lively start to the Mogale show. fixture, Angels should have taken The dreadlocked goalie pulled the lead in the 5th minute, their off several incredible saves, showdefender, Mompati Mbidzo, slaming cat-like reflexes as he flung ming his header into the bar afhis body through the air, acrobatiter Mogale misjudged a flighted cally tipping close-range headers corner. From a metre out, Mbidzo over the bar and pushing fierce, will be wondering how he missed! point blank efforts away.
It proved a taste of things to In between, Angels struck the come for Coach Seemo Mpatane woodwork a further three times, and his players. including what would have been
The game’s defining moment a contender for goal of the seaplayed out minutes later, when, son from Monty Enosa. Displaying dribbling skills the late Diego Maradona would have been proud of, the striker weaved his way into the box, playing tap-tap with the Chadibe defence and leaving four players in the dust. Moving at speed, Enosa muscled his way into a shooting position, his half-volley crashing into the underside of the bar with a motionless Mogale beaten.
The lanky forward looks a star in the making and, should Angels fail to go up, there will likely be plenty of premier league teams who come sniffing for his services. In a week when two of their former players, Doctor David and Gofaone Mabaya, were called up to the national team, the club could very well have another future Zebra on their hands.
Unable to maintain the same ferocious tempo, Angels faded slightly in the second 45, largely restricted to long-range efforts and half-chances as they pushed in vain for a point.
Indeed, as the game wore on, Chadibe looked increasingly dangerous on the counter, with substitute, Gosaitse Manuel, lively up front and forcing Lekuni into two smart saves.
At the final whistle, Chadibe’s fans and players celebrated as if they’d won the league, Coach Murphy Maseko punching the air in delight as the Chad Arena went wild. In contrast, overcome