Chiefs face banana skin in Masitaoka
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday March 14, 2025 11:05
This is after local football giants, including the Gaborone pair of Township Rollers and record FA Cup winners, Gaborone United (GU), Premier League challengers, TAFIC, and Morupule Wanderers were all dumped out of the competition last week. Nine teams have booked their spots in the last 16 round and four of those are plying their trade in the lower leagues. Kgatleng giants, Mochudi Centre Chiefs will look to avoid a potential banana skin as they face Masitaoka on Sunday afternoon at the Royal Aria Stadium. Chiefs are having their best season since their drop to the First Division in 2019. The team is on a roll as they are on a five-game unbeaten streak, keeping a clean sheet on three occasions. With seven goals scored in the run, Magosi would feel confident ahead of the Sunday tie.
Pontsho Moloi would fancy his team's chances of clinching the competition, a cup the team last won when he was club captain in 2008. The team's 15-year cup competition drought faces a Masitaoka side that is looking for redemption in this campaign. The team was relegated to the third-tier league at the start of this season following ownership and Premier League status exchanges. This is a team that has done impressively in the Orange FA Cup. They defied the odds in the 2020 edition as they sailed all the way to the final of the competition only to lose 3-0 to GU.
Five years later, Majatlhaga are now battling it out in the Kweneng Division 1 League. The team has managed seven wins, four losses, and played to a draw in five games since returning to the third-tier league. Masitaoka will be eyeing revenge against Chiefs ahead of this Sunday's clash. Chiefs ran out 3-1 winners the last time the pair met in a round of 48 match played in 2022. In other intriguing contests, Matebele will be at the Sam Sono Stadium where third-tier side, Mmadinare Giant Aces lie in wait whilst Calendar Stars of Francistown travel the longest distance to Gantsi to take on Blue Stars at the Kgaphamadi Primary Ground.