Roman Callies falter in Emi shootout
Roman Callies FC lost by a slight margin of 5-3 in the penalty shootout against Emi FC at the Nedbank provincial knockout stages which took place in eMaxesibeni (previously Mount Ayliff) on Saturday.
The Ezibeleni team which was representing the district in the Nedbank tournament knockouts will now focus on winning the regional league to qualify for the ABC Motsepe League.
Painting a picture of how the game transpired, Roman Callies co-coach Lonwabo Bobotyana said the first half had been an end-to-end game.
“We were not playing according to our standard,” he said.
“I do not know if it was due to stage fright, because the boys have never reached that level of football before.”
Bobotyana said the slow start led to a goal of 1-0 from Emi, but Roman Callies got back in form and scored from a penalty, which resulted in a tie.
Before halftime, he said, Roman Callies missed a few chances that were created; something the team had grappled with throughout the tournament.
Bobotyana said the local team took a while to warm up in the second half. During the process they ended up conceding an own goal and were 2-1 down. But, after picking up the pace, Roman Callies converted a penalty and drew 2-2.
The team missed a few more created chances before the game ended in penalties, where Emi from Joe Gqabi won the match by 5-3.
Bobotyana said the boys who felt they could have performed better were disappointed by the loss.
“They did not play to their best ability, because they saw they had more potential than most teams which were there, but on the day they could not show up.
“We will now focus on winning the regional league to qualify for the ABC Motsepe League.”