Tafic beaten on home soil
Leornard Matota | Monday March 31, 2014 12:18
As usual TAFIC put up a brave performance and showed more hunger on the ball but their defensive blunders cost them greatly with pedestrian mistakes.
On the 5th minute TAFIC’s lethal striker Tendai Nyamadzawo’s free kick narrowly missed the target However, it was Chiefs’ Kekaetswe Mara Moloi who broke the deadlock on the seventh minute with a header, connecting a Lemponye Tshireletso’s in- swingging corner. Chiefs from there found their feet and pilled pressure on the home side, forcing TAFIC’s defence to concede corner kicks time and again.
However, TAFIC on the 15th minute capitalised on Chiefs’ many corners and caught them on the break forcing Michael Mogaladi to foul Oarabilwe Powe inside the penalty box. Nyamadzawo stepped up and leveled the scores to bring his side back into the game. TAFIC then suffered a blow when Powe could not continue with the game, and had to be ferried to the hospital. He was replaced by Anderson Siphambe. From there it was a see-saw encounter as both teams kept on going at each other’s throats. However Chiefs nearly got one on the 29th minute when Tshireletso’s cross found Mara Moloi to head free, but his efforts hit the wood work, but Lesego Galenamotlhale wasted from the rebound.
TAFIC capitalised on another Chiefs blunder that resulted in TAFIC’s Kabo Ogolotse having the easiest of tap inns to give TAFIC a 2-1 lead going into the break. However TAFIC’s lead was short lived as just five minutes into the second half the Reds’ Chakadza Pharo conceded an own goal from a Pontsho Moloi’s cross to level the matters. It got worse for TAFIC as substitute Bonolo Fraizer gave the TAFIC defence a torrid time all over the pitch. Fraiser’s one on one with TAFIC keeper was saved on the 51st minute.
On a good number of occasions the TAFIC defence was caught napping and exposed their keeper to the deadly chiefs attack of Fraizer, Tshireletso and Moloi. On the 68th minute Fraizer’s long range cracker gave Chiefs the lead and broke the hearts of TAFIC supporters.
It couldn’t get any worse for TAFIC with the introduction of Chiefs’ Patrick Lenyetse and bulky Onalethata Tshekiso, as Chiefs continued to impose themselves. Tshireletso put the final nail on TAFIC’s coffin to make it 4-2 on the 90th minute. TAFIC’s coach, Darlington Dodo could not hide his disappointment at the way his team defended on the day, saying they gave away silly goals. “The turning point was when we gave away a soft own goal and invited pressure on ourselves. We credited almost all of Chiefs goals when we were supposed to be in search of our goals”, he noted.
For his part Chiefs Coach, Mike Sithole credited his team for sticking to their game plan and scored more goals. He said though they started a bit lower in the 1st half it was his change to a 4-4-2 formation in the second half that gave him more attacking option. “From there we created a lot of chances which we missed, but I am happy we buried four of them”, he said.