Tuks women's football team won't be contesting the Varsity Football Tournament semifinals, but it is certainly not due to lack of trying.
Yesterday in Potchefstroom they staged a fantastic comeback beating CUT 6-0 in their last pool game. In doing so there was still a slight chance of Tuks progressing to the playoffs. Everything depended on Kovsies beating TUT. Unfortunately, it did not happen. TUT thrashed the Free State team 6-0.
Amilcar Thobejane is honest in her assessment as to how the Tuks Varsity campaign got derailed.
"We had the mindset that we were going to win the tournament. As far as we were concerned, our only challenge was to beat TUT. The reasoning being that if we did so, we would play the final.
"Being so obsessed with beating, only one team meant that we did not respect and honour the other teams we had to play. That was a huge mistake. The basics of football dictate that on a good day, any team can win.
"Kovsies proved it by beating us 1-0. We were totally devastated afterwards. Each of us went our own way to reflect on what went wrong.
"Our coaches reminded us that all was not lost. There was still a chance that we could progress to the semifinals if we can manage to beat CUT by six or more goals. Everyone bought into the new challenge.
"The CUT game was perhaps the most amazing I ever played. We played with the mindset that we had nothing to lose. Being so carefree on the field meant we played brilliantly and with such intensity. Every time after we had scored, we would rush back, placing the ball on the halfway line to be kicked off again."
Unfortunately, TUT's players watched from the sidelines how the Tuks players netted one goal after another seemingly getting more motivated by the minute. When the final whistle blew TUT realised they had to beat Kovsies to remain in the Varsity Tournament.
It seems it might be a while before Thalea Smidt, Tuks's captain, might be able to play again. Apparently, she had torn her ankle and knee ligaments. To worsen matters her ankle bone is also broken when she went down in the game against TUT on Thursday.
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