Cape Town City v Royal AM
12 February, DHL Cape Town Stadium, 18h00
As one of just four all-topflight ties, this one promises to be the most exciting of the round. Cape Town City’s form has been wildly inconsistent all season and their last 14 matches in all competitions have seen eight losses. Since the World Cup break, they’ve played seven times. Their first five games brought three wins to ease their relegation fears, with the first of those coming with a last-minute strike by Thabo Nodada against Thwihli Thwahla. They’ve since lost two encounters in a row, 3-2 at Stellenbosch having led 2-0 and then 2-0 away at SuperSport United. All four of their previous fixtures against Royal AM have seen both teams on target and three of those meetings saw three goals scored in the match, a relative goal-fest by DStv Premiership standards!
They may be playing the KZN-based outfit at just the wrong time after the return of coach John Maduka, who took the side to an incredible third-place finish last season before departing in the off-season. He took over a side with just two victories in 14 matches (all competitions) and with five successive defeats on the road. His impact was immediate with a 2-1 win at Golden Arrows. The Malawian-born mentor made a triple change in the second half and turned around a 1-0 deficit, with both goals coming from substitutes in Mfundo Thikazi and Sedwyn George.
Key battle Thikazi v Lakay
Without doubt, 23-year-old winger Mfundo Thikazi is one of the league’s rising stars. He still seems to be going somewhat under the radar when all of the top clubs should be looking at him. He already has five goals in the league this season despite making just five starts and only playing 38% of the available minutes, partly due to injuries. Possibly the most remarkable stat is that all of his strikes have come in away matches, with no other player in the topflight netting more open play goals on the road. He scored twice at Sekhukhune United and once at each of SuperSport, Maritzburg and Arrows last Saturday. Strangely, Royal AM’s next top scorer is Motebang Sera, who has scored all of his goals in home matches! With this fixture being in Cape Town, Thikazi is the danger man and he may get a fair bit of space against Lyle Lakay. The latter hasn’t always defended strongly this season at City and looks more naturally suited to playing as a wingback with more cover around him. We’ve seen Marc van Heerden start a couple of recent fixtures for his greater defensive qualities. This should be an intriguing tactical battle as Lakay will bomb forward and leave space for Thikazi, but will the youngster track back or let Lakay deliver regular crosses? This will have a big say in which side finds themselves in the draw for the Round of 16.
Tinkler to tinker v Maduka-ball?
These sides both look too strong to be relegated, but the league table tells a different story. Royal AM are just three points clear of the drop zone, whilst City’s buffer is only two points. Both teams may see a chance to rotate their side a little and stimulate internal competition within their squads. Without Nathan Fasika, coach Eric Tinkler’s side have been leaking far too many goals. Lorenzo Gordinho will need to be on his game against Sera, Mxolisi Macuphu and George, who all offer a direct aerial threat.
The visitors were without key defender Ricardo Nascimento against Abafana Bes’thende and that may mean they’re much less secure at the back. In the nine away league matches prior to last weekend, they had kept no clean sheets with a total of 19 goals leaked. They’ve recently conceded three times at Stellenbosch, three at SuperSport, two against Swallows FC and Cape Town City, three against Maritzburg and two vs Chiefs. Maduka may need to return to his preferred 3-4-2-1 shape to make the team rock-solid once again.