TEAM OF CHOICE EYE PLAY-OFFS SPOT DESPITE CHALLENGES

Things may look tough for local team Maritzburg United, who are campaigning in the Motsepe Foundation Championship (National First Division), but they are trying hard to stay positive.

Although their current campaign in the second tier of South African football kicked off with a couple of challenges that hampered their plans to bounce back into the elite league, the Team of Choice believe they can still achieve this through the playoffs.

United chairperson Farook Kadodia (pictured) yesterday confirmed that his team were prepared to “pull all the stops” in order to fulfil their ambition, even though the competition is very tight.

“To play in the NFD is very challenging. Sometimes you get forced to stay in one province for a longer period if you are playing two games.

“We are trying our best to stand a chance to qualify for the playoffs, but it’s not easy at all. Maybe there’s about six teams that are standing a chance for playoffs,” said Kadodia.

Last weekend, during the “home game” at Clermont’s Sugary Xulu Stadium, the Team of Choice went down 1-0 against visitors Marumo Gallants.

Kadodia said the team played their hearts out and were just unlucky to lose the game.

He also bitterly complained about the match officials in charge of that game. “Officiating of the games is bad. One of the assistant referees did not fairly allow us to play last weekend,” said the United chair.

Tomorrow the Team of Choicewill travel to Polokwane’s Old Peter Mokaba Stadium to face Magesi

FC.

United will be forced to spend some time in the province because they face Venda FC at Thohoyandou Stadium on Wednesday (April 30).

“It is costly for us and taxing us big time, financially and physically,” said Kadodia.

On May 5 (3 pm kickoff) United will be at home (Sugar Xulu Stadium) against Hungry Lions.

On May 12 (3 pm) they will host Platinum City and on May 19 they will travel to Soshanguve Giant Stadium to tackle JDR Stars.

Meanwhile, local soccer followers are advised that tickets for Sunday’s DStv match between Royal AM and Orlando Pirates at Harry Gwala are available at at TicketPro — which includes Edgars, Edgars Active, CNA, Jet, Jet Mart, Caltex, Engen and Spa (R100 all ages).

The match kicks off at 3 pm.

The match will feature the “AmaFanDayz” experience for the fans, where one lucky fan could walk away with R200 000!