Malamulele Stadium will be the place to be for local soccer lovers on Sunday afternoon. That is where the much-awaited Motsepe Foundation Championship League match between Black Leopards and Baroka FC will be played.
Black Leopards' head coach, Mr Joel Masutha, is still battling to find a winning combination. As usual, his team had started the new season on a sad note. Lidoda duvha were beaten 0-1 by Hungry Lions in their opening league match at the Malamulele Stadium two weeks ago. As if that was not enough to irritate the team's enthusiastic supporters, the Thohoyandou side were brutally walloped 0-3 by Polokwane City at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium last Saturday.
Masutha is optimistic that they will collect the maximum points at the expense of Baroka and restore the team's lost pride. The combination of Matimu Tshabalala and Noko Malekana in the Leopards' striking force is expected to give the defence of Baroka headaches, while Kyiaan Bull and Kenneth Nthatheni will have the mammoth task of keeping the team's danger area clean.
Just like Black Leopards, things are not going according to plan in the Baroka camp. The Polokwane side managed to collect only one point in their first two matches. They lost 1-2 to Uthongathi in their opening match before sharing the spoils with Cape Town All Stars, with whom they had played to a goalless draw at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium last Saturday.
Baroka had played their third home match in a row on Wednesday afternoon. They hosted Pretoria Callies at the same venue. The result of the match was not yet available at the time of our going to print.