All four deserve award
Phakaaathi’s Player-of-the-Month competition is back, with your chance to walk away with R350 in airtime. August saw some fantastic performances in the Premier Soccer League, and Phakaaathi’s writers have again come up with their four nominations for you to choose from. All you have to do is pick your favourite, and then follow the rules in the competition advert at the bottom of the page. Good luck!
Bongani Sam has hit the ground running in his first stint in top-flight football in Bloemfontein Celtic colours. The leftback has started all the team’s past four games and has already scored (the winner against Orlando Pirates) and more recently, he got the Man-of-theMatch accolade in their 2-2 draw with Kaizer Chiefs at the FNB Stadium. His potential was seen by Highlands Park coach Owen da Gama while he was part of the Nedbank Ke Yona team in 2016, he was then drafted to Celtic, where he played for the reserve team, before Highlands took him on a season-long loan while they were campaigning in the NFD. Da Gama was sad to see the leftback return to Celtic this campaign, and it is no secret why. Sam’s resilience and hard work have earned him a nomination for this month’s Phakaaathi Player-of-the-Month award.
Cape Town City have started the new season in fine form and are looking good to challenge for honours. Benni McCarthy’s team are seventh in the Absa Premiership with five points after one win, two draws and one defeat in four matches and have made the final in the MTN8 after knocking out Mamelodi Sundowns at the weekend. One of the reasons for City’s good run is Thabo Nodada, the central midfielder who McCarthy has repeatedly said would make it at any team overseas. The 23-yearold has been a marvel in the City midfield and provides good cover for the back four while he is also useful when the team attacks. His partnership with Roland Putsche has seen the side boss the midfield and dictate terms in many of their games. Nodada was one of the stand-out performers in August and deserves the nomination.
Evans Rusike currently tops the Absa Premiership goal charts with three goals from four starts, goals which have helped SuperSport United get off to a superb start this season following a disastrous 2017/18 campaign. The capital city campaigners are third in the table, partly thanks to those Rusike goals, especially the winner against leaders Bidvest Wits, who suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of United. The Zimbabwean international also went on to score the winner in a league match against Chippa United. While Rusike’s team-mate Bradley Grobler has hogged the spotlight in Kaitano Tembo’s team’s run to a second consecutive MTN8 final in as many years, Rusike did score in a 2-2 draw against Orlando Pirates in the quarterfinals, before they went on to dump the Buccaneers out of the competition on penalties.
Deon Hotto has made a fantastic start to life at Gavin Hunt’s table-topping Bidvest Wits, with his August sealed by a tremendous run and assist for Mxolisi Machupu who fired home the Clever Boys’ second in a 3-0 romp against AmaZulu, a result that gave Wits four victories out of five to start the new Absa Premiership season. The talented Namibian midfielder started the month with a debut goal and assist for Wits in a 3-0 win over Free State Stars, and followed that up by doing exactly the same to Giovanni Solinas’ Kaizer Chiefs, as the Clever Boys got their season off to a real flyer, cruising past Amakhosi 3-1. Hotto’s tireless energy has been a massive plus for a Wits side looking good to mount another title challenge, with the midfielder doing brilliantly alongside other new signings like Machupu and Gift Motupa.