Matebele joy, Rollers' horror
Mqondisi Dube | Tuesday October 20, 2026 10:35
The new season has been full of twists and turns, with surprises emerging from the opening rounds. It began with Extension Gunners stunning pre-season favourites Mochudi Centre Chiefs 1-0, setting the tone for a campaign in which reputations have counted for little. Matebele FC, a team that could have been campaigning in the lower divisions after an unsuccessful bid to sell off its status last season, delivered a killer blow to Rollers at the GU Stadium. Rollers had many positives to take from a pre-season riddled with player exodus amid financial concerns.
Then sponsors came flooding in, reigniting hopes amongst the Blue Nation that the glory days were on their way. But Sunday's defeat was deflating and has punctured those hopes, as Matebele made a mockery of Rollers' fast start. The record league champions were the fastest off the blocks, with a Thembalani Majingo goal in the 38th minute. Rollers thought they were on their way to a routine victory, but a youthful Matebele side had other ideas. Rollers were pegged back when Matebele hit them on the counter, with Leago Masisi levelling the ledger two minutes before the break. It then became a Boitshepo Mogome show, with the forward scoring a stunning second-half hat-trick to condemn Popa to their second defeat of the season. Captain Marcel Papama, who started on the bench, scored Rollers' second goal in the dying minutes of the game. With the defeat, Rollers dropped to 11th, while Matebele moved off the foot of the table to 13th with four points. Rollers interim coach, Oupa Kowa described the afternoon as a 'horrible day at the office'.
'We did not respond to the instructions from the beginning of the game. We dealt with the same issues at half-time, but we could not change,' Kowa said. 'In football, when you have too many things going wrong, you will get the result we got today. Too many players were doing the wrong things. They were late in marking, they were not tracking, and they were making the wrong decisions.' He said that, in some situations, his players tried to be smart with their passes instead of executing the basics. Asked about starting key players like Papama on the bench, Kowa said it was a deliberate decision.
'We did that knowing that a lot of them are carrying cards, and if they get a caution, we were looking at the next game. We felt this was the opportunity to rest them ahead of the next game against (Jwaneng) Galaxy,' Kowa added. Rollers finished with 10 men after Shaun Gcumeni was shown a red card in the 80th minute. Popa now shift their attention to the African Hero Top 8, with a tough test against Jwaneng Galaxy in the quarter-finals on Sunday. Matebele coach, Elias Chinyemba who recently returned to the team for his second spell, was naturally elated. 'We played our usual passing game, we were very confident on the ball and locating empty spaces and occupying them on time. Our finishing today was top notch,' he said.
'These are youngsters who are coachable, I told them be confident and play your game and they responded very well and going forward we will leave a lot of teams bleeding through their noses,' Chinyemba added.