Rusike connects sweetly to give Keet zero chance
HONESTLY, Wits rode their luck to win the Telkom Knockout in December. They needed a whole lot more at Bidvest Stadium last night in the opening round of the Nedbank Cup to eliminate Cape Town City, an opposition that’s turning out to be their bogey team in some respects.
Wits again dominated the game, similarly to the three previous times they have faced off with Benni McCarthy’s side already this season, but couldn’t find the goal.
During a bad spell, which pushed them to the bottom of the PSL standings by the halfway mark, Wits were able to grind out results to go all the way in the Telkom Knockout, narrowly beating Bloemfontein Celtic 1-0.
Their recent form suggests they have turned the corner somewhat, especially when you look at how they dismantled recent Caf Confederation Cup runners-up SuperSport United a few weeks ago – beating them 2-0 at home and then coming from behind to humiliate them 4-2 away.
Even against Kaizer Chiefs at the weekend, the Clever Boys dug deep to claw their way back into the match and earn a point in their 1-1 draw with Steve Komphela’s Glamour Boys.
They have well and truly shown “passion and desire”, words used by their coach Gavin Hunt in describing their resurgence, in the second half of the season.
They were no different against City yesterday – but it wasn’t their night. And perhaps this is a bit of a mental thing. McCarthy remains unbeaten against his teacher Hunt, the man who launched his career way back when, the former Bafana Bafana striker aged just 17 when he made his top-flight debut in South African football.
City brushed aside Wits in the opening league game of the season, shocked them 1-0 in Cape Town in the first leg of the MTN8 semi-finals and then beat them one more time in the return leg by winning 2-1.
No doubt the Wits players would have been thinking about those results in the build-up, but were caught by a sucker punch as early as the second minute.
Matthew Rusike, making his debut for new club City following his arrival on deadline day last week, connected sweetly with a typically good Teko Modise cross.
As soon as the ball landed on the striker’s head from midfield genius Modise’s boot, goalkeeper Darren Keet had zero chance of keeping the ball out.
That was really the visitor’s best moment of the game, as they were under siege from Wits from that moment onwards.
Both McCarthy and Hunt were animated on the dugout, but the “student” managed to get one over his “teacher” yet again – seeing to it that Wits don’t have anything else to play for in the domestic season other than having a say in where the league championship might end up given their upcoming fixtures against log-leaders Mamelodi Sundowns and second-placed Orlando Pirates in the title run-in.
For a match report on last night’s game between Ubuntu Cape Town and Polokwane City go to www.iol.co.za