Sport

MTN 8 glory for Golden Arrows

Brad Morgan

26 October 2009

In a stunning result, Durban-based Lamontville Golden Arrows claimed their first major South African title when they crushed Ajax Cape Town 6-0 in the final of the MTN 8 knockout competition at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg on Saturday night.

The MTN 8, contested at the beginning of each Premier Soccer League season by the top eight finishers of the previous season, boasts a R8-million winner-takes-all prize, while guaranteeing each team R800 000 simply for participating.

Interviewed after the game, Arrows' coach Manqoba Mngqithi said: "You can go and ask my players, I said: 'today we are going to win 5-0'. I had analysed very closely their last line of defence, which is why I played [Njabulo] Manqana as a second striker.

"I had never used him as a second striker before. But I knew they could not deal with the pace."

Masterstroke

Mngqithi's use of a second striker proved to be a masterstroke as Manqana ended up winning the man of the match award after netting a brace.

"I think that we deserved it today," Manqana reckoned, "because everyone was willing to play to the instructions. The coach said we should go and fight for the team and we did so."

For Ajax coach Jan Pruijn, it was a nightmare performance by his charges. "Everything fell apart – tactically, the hunger to win a cup, confidence – all the pieces that we felt should come together today fell apart," he said.

Experience

Based on the advantage of their experience in big games, Ajax was expected to handle the pressure of the final well. After all, they had claimed knockout cup titles in successive years, winning the Nedbank Cup in 2007 and the Telkom Knockout in 2008.

The Capetonians had also accounted for the two big Soweto clubs, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, on the way to the final. They scored a 2-1 away victory over Orlando Pirates in the quarterfinals and then edged Kaizer Chiefs 4-3 on aggregate in the semi-finals – winning 1-0 in Cape Town and drawing 3-3 at the Orlando Stadium.

Arrows, meanwhile, won 1-0 at Free State Stars to reach the semi-finals, where they scored 2-1 and 2-0 victories over Durban rivals Amazulu to book their place in the final.

Floodlight failure

The title-decider was never close, however, as Abafana Bes'thende (The Backheel Boys) totally outplayed the Urban Warriors. The closest Ajax came to stopping Arrows was when the stadium's floodlights went out at the start of the second half, leading to a delay of an hour. Even then, Arrows came back stronger than before.

It could have been an even bigger thrashing had it not been for some superb goalkeeping by veteran Ajax netminder Hans Vonk, although Vonk was to blame for Arrows' first goal.

The Durbanites started off full of confidence, with no indication that they felt any nerves playing in a big final with R8-million on the line for the winners.

Showing impressive pace in attack, they immediately took the game to Ajax, putting the Cape Town team's defence under pressure.

Opening goal

When Vonk misjudged a long ball over the Ajax defence, Manqana was on hand to punish him by knocking the ball into an empty net.

In the 20th minute it became 2-0 when Latvian defender Deniss Ivanovs deflected a shot by Mzuvukile Tom into his own net.

The teams went into the break with Arrows two goals to the good, but the floodlight failure led to a long delay before the start of the second half, not that it seemed to affect the Durbanites at all.

Second half

It took them only four minutes to increase their lead as striker Richard Henyekane was rewarded for a first half performance that had caused Ajax all sorts of problems. Manqana shot at goal and when Vonk could only parry the ball Henyekane was on hand to stick it into the back of the net.

Arrows increased their lead in the 66th minute when substitute Thokozani Mshengu broke clean through the Ajax defence and beat Vonk in a one-on-one.

The agony for the Capetonians wasn't over, however, and Ntlantla Zothwane made it 5-0 seven minutes later by blasting a shot past the under-siege Vonk.

The scoring was completed in the last minute of regulation time when Manqana netted from a tight angle.