The UP-Tuks football players never say die attitude led to them securing a 1-1 draw against the University of Johannesburg in the Varsity Tournament.
The last few minutes of the game were quite a humdinger. Mokete Mogaila scored for UJ in the 81st minute. The goal incentivised the Tuks players to lift their game. Within minutes they equalised. It was due to the genius of Richard Moremi who managed to set up the ball correctly enabling Chinedu Okolo to head the ball into the back of the net. The last few minutes saw a flurry of attacks by both teams. No team was able to score.
Simbongile Njokwe (UP-Tuks captain) described it as a game of two halves.
“My boys fought like soldiers. I truly impressed me with their play. All credit to the UJ players who really put us under pressure for most of the first half. In the second half, we gave as good as we got. I thought we were ‘gonna’ steal the game in the last few minutes. Luck was unfortunately just not on our side.”
Tlisane Motaung (UP-Tuks head coach) said for now he is satisfied with a draw especially since it was an away game.
“In spite of UJ dominating at first, I don’t think they caused our defence any real problems. It was exciting to see that our defensive lines were more organised than it was in the game against TUT.
“During halftime, I changed our game plan slightly. We needed to close out UJ’s wings. I told the fullbacks to pressurise them giving very little space to manoeuvre. It worked.”
Motaung is confident that his team is going to go from strength to strength as the Varsity Tournament progresses.
“We are going to slowly but surely pick up points. I see the tournament as a chess game in which you just got to make sure you are continually making the right moves. Next Thursday we are playing UKZN who lost their first two games. They are ‘wounded’ which means it would be a mistake to underestimate them. It is all going to boil down to which team is the hungriest and the most clinical in the execution of their game plan."
Motaung pointed out that there are a lot of similarities to the UP-Tuks Varsity campaign of this year and last year.
“Last year after two games we also just had one point which placed us eighth on the log. We drew our first game against TUT and lost against UJ. At the moment we are fifth after a losing a game and draw."
Virtual Campus
Get Social With Us
Download the UP Mobile App