Plays of the week

Star

Kaitano Tembo has made a most impressive start to his stint as permanent head coach at SuperSport United and is silencing the doubters who thought the club would go for a more experienced name. Tembo oversaw a thrilling MTN8 semifinal first leg against Kaizer Chiefs last Sunday, where a 2-2 draw left all to play for in tomorrow’s second leg at FNB Stadium. Then in midweek his team kept their focus by beating Chippa United 2-1 to record a third Absa Premiership win in four matches.

Flop

Thamsanqa Gabuza has apologised for his antics on Tuesday night, when he stormed off the pitch at Peter Mokaba Stadium, apparently furious at criticism aimed at him from the stands by the Orlando Pirates fans. It makes him Phakaaathi’s Flop-of-the-Week. Gabuza has taken his fair share of criticism at Pirates over the years, ridiculed mainly for the amount of opportunities he misses. And it clearly all became too much for him on Tuesday as, after assisting in an own-goal to somewhat make up for a couple of glaring misses, he threw his shirt into the crowd and walked down the tunnel. When he returned, he was rightly shown two yellow cards, one for taking off his shirt, and one for leaving the field of play, so ironically, he had to leave again.

Quote

“As much as we have been in this tournament for four years in a row, we are still babies and we play this tournament the South African way, with a clean soul and fair play. You know the story of African football … we can’t complain about people falling and all of that, we had 90 minutes to score. But for me it looks ugly and it looks bad for football. As long as we keep representing the country, one day we will win it again. Be patient with us and remember the history of when it was won by Pirates and how many years we had to wait to win it. Give us a chance.” – Pitso Mosimane reacts to Mamelodi Sundowns’ exit from the Caf Champions League after they could only manage a goalless draw with Horoya of Guinea.