TOP 5 ALL-TIME BEST MATCHES:
MBABANE – Magical moment it was!
Eswatini has provided one of the best magical moments to be spoken about for a long time in the COSAFA Cup. This year will be the COSAFA Cup Senior Challenge’s 21st edition, but in all these years, Eswatini has dished the second best all-time match in the tournament. This was against Zimbabwe on May 5, 2002.
Purely underdogs at the time, Sihlangu shocked the favourites with a 2-0 win. While it is formally 25 years of the competition this year, the upcoming edition is deemed as the 21st edition due to the turn of the century. The first edition was in 1997.
The regional soccer showpiece that has been the benchmark for unearthing stars for the future, like South Africa and England’s Everton legend Steven Pienaar, Eswatini and Kaizer Chiefs legend Sibusiso ‘Spoko’ Dlamini, ex-Jomo Cosmos and Sihlangu legend Siza ‘King Pele’ Dlamini and former Orlando Pirates and Sihlangu star Dennis ‘Yuki’ Masina among others, is getting underway next month in Durban.
COSAFA denotes Council of Southern Africa Football Associations. Ahead of every edition usually COSAFA
media does a build-up to the tournament whose draw is yet to be held. The competition will run from July 5-17.
Yesterday, rankings for the top five all-time best games ever seen in the tournament put Eswatini on second. Sihlangu beat Zimbabwe away in the ranked match as during this era, clubs would travel different venues to honour fixtures but it is now centred in South Africa, Durban for all participants.
The only best game ahead of the Eswatini and Zimbabwe clash is Namibia against South Africa. Namibia, also underdogs here won 2-0.
Meanwhile, the Eswatini squad had the aforementioned names playing, and Spoko and Siza were the scorers.
Tough
“There are not many sides that travel to Harare and come away with a win in any competition, but it has proven an especially tough venue for teams in the COSAFA Cup. Going against that grain, were the Eswatini side that competed in the 2002 tournament as they faced off with Zimbabwe in the quarterfinals and came away with a stunning 2-0 victory.
“It was one of the great shocks in the early years of the COSAFA Cup and still today remains one of the biggest upsets in the competition’s 24-year history. At the time, it was championship. Strikers Siza Dlamini and Sibusiso Dlamini both scored in the second half against a Zimbabwean side featuring five overseas-based professionals in their starting line-up,” an excerpt from the COSAFA Media article read. The article also relived how these goals were scored, starting with ‘King Pele’, who burst through the midfield and shrugged off several defenders, running half the length of the pitch before chipping over Zimbabwe’s goalkeeper Tapuwa Kapini for the opening goal on the hour mark.
Namibia 3 – 2 South Africa (Jan 24, 1998) Zimbabwe 0 – 2 Eswatini (May 5, 2002) Seychelles 7 – 0 Mauritius (July 19, 2008) Madagascar 2 – 3 Namibia (May 28, 2015) Zambia 2 – 4 Zimbabwe (June 9, 2018)
arguably the biggest victory in the storied existence of the Eswatini national side, which was then ranked number 132 in the world, but came away with a win against a home team placed 67 positions above them.
“It was the first time Eswatini had beaten Zimbabwe and the first away win for the side in five years of competing in the annual southern African