Chivaviro will not rest on his laurels
National First Division side Ubuntu Cape Town were the only team that stuck to the David defeating Goliath script as the Mother Citybased outfit caused an upset in the Nedbank Cup last-32 when they knocked out top-flight side Polokwane City in the first round.
The irony is that Ubuntu are fighting for their lives in the NFD where they are at the foot of the table and are in danger of losing their second-tier status.
Striker Ranga Chivaviro, who has scored 11 goals in 20 games in all competition this season, was the Man-of-theMatch when his side ousted Rise and Shine. Chivaviro scored two goals in either half of regulation time, before his team-mate Siyambonga Madikane netted the winner in extra-time to win the tie 3-2.
The striker is vowing to do his best to make sure Ubuntu protect their NFD status.
“I will try to contribute to the team’s survival and try to score as many goals as I can,” he told Phakaaathi.
Chivaviro believes that advancing to the last-16 of the competition at the expense of a Premier League side can only give his beleaguered side much-needed confidence in their bid for survival.
“A win like this reboots us as individuals because in that game against Polokwane we had about 14 teenagers in the squad. Going into that game and beating a PSL team with so many youngsters can only bring us the confidence and gives us belief that if we can beat a team in the PSL, why can’t we beat a team in our own division? That win made us stop and say we need to do the same thing we did to Polokwane City when we play in the league,” he said.
Inasmuch as netting two goals against a top-flight side and getting that green Nedbank jacket for Man-of-the-Match would be a moment to cherish for most players, Chivaviro has long forgotten those heroics and is already looking forward to the next assignment which is against Stellenbosch on Sunday.
“I am not one who really looks back at the things that have happened,” said Chivaviro.
“For me it was more of a collective effort and it was all about what the team did on the day, I was just lucky to be the guy who scored those goals. I can say I just played my part just like the rest of the squad did.”
Ubuntu rank among the teams that have scored the least number of goals in the NFD, and that – according to Ubuntu’s No 10 – is down to him and his co-strikers’ shortcomings in front of goal.
“We are not converting even half the chances we create. I think that has led to our downfall because the teams we play against usually bury their chances. Another challenge is that we often react to what the opponents do instead of acting first. Sometimes it’s some bad defending, but mostly it is us strikers missing our chances,” he said.
However, the forward does hope to avoid the big guns in the Nedbank Cup last-16 draw on Thursday as the club has ambitions to go all the way to the final.
“It the only other tournament we get to play in and at the moment we are struggling in the league, so now that we have an opportunity to play in the cup competition again, it is a dream to take it as far as we can but we will take it one game at a time and see how we go.”