Can Leopards maul the Buccaneers?

The Thohoyandou Stadium will be the best place to be tomorrow (Saturday) evening. That is where the much-awaited Nedbank Cup clash between Black Leopards and Orlando Pirates will be staged.

Whether Black Leopards will use the opportunity to exact revenge for what the Buccaneers did to them in their first-round league match at the Peter Mokaba Stadium six months ago remains to be seen. Lidoda Duvha lost 1-2 to Pirates.

Both Leopards and Pirates are in top form of late and that is reason enough for soccer fanatics to expect to watch a final before the actual final.

The Thohoyandou side are still to lose a league match under the guidance of the team’s new head coach, Mr Dylan Kerr. The Englishman steered Leopards to three victories and two draws.

Should he be given the chance tomorrow, the former Black Leopards playmaker Meshack Maphangule will have a point to prove to his former employers. Maphangule left Leopards for the Soweto giants at the end of last season.  Although he was a star at Black Leopards, Maphangule has never featured in the Buccaneers’ starting line-up. 

Chippa United will enjoy the home-ground advantage in their match against Mamelodi Sundowns.

Tjakastad Junior Shepherds will also play in front of their home crowd. They will play against Lamontville Golden Arrows at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit. Although they are campaigning in the ABC Motsepe League, Junior Shepherds have the potential to push Arrows out of the prestigious competition. They are currently leading the pack in the North Cape Stream of the ABC Motsepe League.

The other Nedbank Cup last 32 fixtures are: Amazulu vs Highlands Park, Free State Stars vs Richards Bay FC, Umvoti FC vs TS Galaxy, Cape Town City vs SuperSport United and Cape Umoya United vs the Tshwane University of Technology.

Date:25 January 2019

By: Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990.  He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

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