Buffalo City finally join Central elite club
AFTER suffering cup final defeats on three occasions in the past, East London Central Local Football Association club affiliate Buffalo City Sports Academy ended their cup final jinx by winning their first senior title.
They lifted the 2017 3rd Edition NoelMein FA Cup on Sunday at the North End Stadium when they beat 2017 Easter Tournament champions Star of India 5-4 on penalties after the match ended 1-1 in full-time.
Buffalo City Sports Academy became the 18th senior club side to be crowned cup champions since the Association’s inauguration in 2013.
Club executive members Baron Bosman and Flavio Sauls heaped praise on their charges for a fine display and on their club management team comprising Antoraz Gamiet and Herman Jones for turning things around for the club.
The club were finalists in the 2014 Gijima Cup, and runners-up in the 2015 Easter Tournament Silver Cup and the 2017 EL Central 5th Anniversary Tournament.
In the semifinals of the NoelMein FA Cup Buffalo City Sports Academy beat First Division league outfit Leeds United 1-0 thanks to a superb 35m first-half screamer from the mercurial Mawetu Williams, who was voted player of the tournament.
The tournament’s top goal-scorer, Temba Moloi struck a hat-trick to lead Star of India to a comprehensive 4-0 win against Atlantic Spurs in their semifinal encounter.
It set up an intriguing cup final between two of the Association’s inform club sides. Both sides created numerous goalscoring opportunities in the first half but could not find the target. Buffalo City club captain Jezuanne Diedricks was rock solid in the heart of his defence while Luntu Bobotjane played a dominant role in the heart of the Star of India midfield engine-room.
With the match on a knife edge Buffalo City made the breakthrough in the 67th minute when striker Angel Snyman collected the ball out wide on the left and sold Stars defender Sachin Dawood a dummy before unleashing a left-footed grass cutter way out of the reach of a diving Ryan Vasi. It was a classical predatory strike.
With time running our Star of India coach Masinga Simbambane introduced Eittien Saptoe out wide on the left and he immediately made his mark when he found acres of space to deliver a superb pass to Temba Moloi, who headed home the equaliser, his eighth goal in the tournament.
The match then had to be decided via the dreaded penalty shootout, and Star of India were unable to recover after the luckless Alrico Sandt ballooned the first kick over the bar. Buffalo City bagged all their kicks to secure the championship trophy.
After hosting exciting cup-tie football over the past three weeks the East London Central Local Football Association will resume its Premier League programme this weekend at the North End Stadium.
The league now enters its second round and it all points to a threehorse race for the title involving current table-toppers and 2015 Premier League champions Riverside, secondand 2013 champions Seagulls, and the current Easter Tournament champions Star of India.
However, defending champions Swaraj are in fourth place and are not out of the race.