The 19-year old Okolo Chinedu sealed the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s fate last night when he headed the ball into the back of the net during the Varsity football encounter played at Tuks.

His goal instigated his teammates to play with greater confidence as the game progressed. UP-Tuks eventually won 2-0, but the score is not an accurate reflection of what happened between the four lines.  With a bit of luck, they could have scored at least three more goals. The important thing, however, was that UP-Tuks won. The victory means that the defending Varsity champions are back in the hunt for a semi-final playoff.

In the dressing room before the game, Tlisane Motaung (UP-Tuks head coach) emphasised the importance of scoring first. He had a good reason for doing so. UP-Tuks had never lost a Varsity game when they opened the scoring. Motaung was proved right.

Chinedu is undoubtedly one of the most exciting players in the Varsity Tournament. A cliché would be to say he is keeping a cool head when it matters because with the ease with which he is able to head the ball into the back of the net. He is at the moment UP-Tuks’s top goal scorer. In the previous game against UJ, he also scored with a header.

He refuses to take any credit for the goals he scored saying that he is just finishing off what his teammates started.

“We practise for hours and hours to get to do things right during games. Winning tonight was a real team effort,” said the lanky defender who received the man of the match award as well as the moment of brilliance award.

Chinedu did admit that there is nothing he loves more than to be able to head a ball into the back of the net.

“I am working towards making heading goals my trademark.”

Richard Moremi scored UP-Tuks’s second goal through pure brilliance proving again what a valuable player he is. Last week against UJ he set up the equalising goal with a bicycle kick.

When complimented on his continuous excellent play Moremi just laughed and said: “I aim to keep on playing better as the tournament progresses.”

The 19-year old Giovanni Idi redeemed himself last night as the goalkeeper with some brilliant saves at crucial times.

“It felt good to be able to make up for the mistakes I made during our first two games. I owed it to my teammates to keep the ball out of the net. I think I regained my confidence,” said Giovanni who is part of the South African under-20 squad.

If there were one player for whom last night’s win might have been that little bit more special, it would be Sabelo Tsambo who celebrated his 24th birthday on the field.

“It is nice that we were able to secure a victory on my birthday. I think everybody played well because we were highly motivated. From the first minute we aimed to create goal scoring opportunities, and we did so.”