Grieving Gabuza deserves a medal

It was a nice, exciting MTN8 final, for a change on Saturday. Finals can be boring and tactical so I am glad there was entertaining football on show for the fans at Orlando Stadium.

SuperSport United were deserved winners. It was difficult for Highlands Park to play their normal game. Orlando Stadium is a wide pitch, so for them to play their normal tactics of man-marking was very demanding. There were always moments in the game when SuperSport were given space and they took full advantage.

Bradley Grobler is in a rich vein of form. We have always known about his ability, but it is great to see a player maturing.

After his injury-ridden seasons, it was difficult to see his potential, but just before his groin injury last season he was also firing on all cylinders. As he is older now he has started to settle down and live a more professional life.

Even if you have already been professional, you still start to take your life more seriously. He is coming into that stage of his career now and is starting to reap the benefits.

Being a father myself, I can’t even imagine what Thamsanqa Gabuza has gone through with losing his son. His story of playing despite his son’s death was certainly the story of the final.

Yes, Grobler scored the winner and it was SuperSport’s third final in a row, but Gabuza was the star performer.

Not every player experiences being booed like Gabuza was at Pirates. At Kaizer Chiefs I had close friends of mine that were booed like that, players like Kenny Niemach and Gary Goldstone, you make one mistake and fans come down hard on you.

The fact that he had lost his son, for a man to put in a Man-ofthe-Match performance, it shows the strength of Gabuza.

I had a conversation with SuperSport CEO Stan Matthews about seven or eight weeks ago, and he spoke about how important it was to give Kaitano Tembo the players he wants. When Gordon Igesund was here, he got the players he wanted, Stuart Baxter was given the players he wanted.

So for Kaitano to be successful, it was important for Stan to give him the players he wants.

It is great to see the whole team backing Kaitano, that the chairman believes in him and the players are playing for him. It is no secret that sometimes when a European coach comes in they are more attentive and give him the respect he deserves.

The SuperSport defence stayed resolute, but Highlands still had two or three opportunities.

It just wasn’t Highlands Park’s day. They are always a team who are fit and won’t roll over and let you beat them. That made for a very good final.

Now we move on to an international week, and Bafana Bafana taking on Mali in the Nelson Mandela Challenge in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

I am glad there is finally someone to play. We have slowly moved on from last month’s problems, it is good to see the squad come together and we will see how they respond to Molefi Ntseki.

Let’s see if it will be a different brand of football than we played under Stuart Baxter.

South Africa’s strength is going forward … we had a compact defence under Baxter, but going forward, we need to be the South African team we know we can be.