ECCO City humiliates Chiefs

BOITUMELO KHUTSAFALO
Correspondent | Tuesday March 6, 2007 00:00

The resounding Sunday win meant that ECCO completed a double over Chiefs after a 3-2 victory in the first round at the Francistown Stadium. Though it is still too early to talk about the championship, the win might be the most memorable and important-come the end of the season for ECCO. For Chiefs it was an unmitigated disaster. They now face a daunting task of trying to catch up with Mamoja-diskie. On Sunday, it was obvious there was tension from the first whistle. But this did not stop the two sides from displaying entertaining football under wet conditions.  Credit must be given to the referee Lekgotla Johannes who handled the game well. ECCO was missing only one player, Gaboratanelwe Kgosietsile through injury. But Chiefs played without key strikers Pontsho Moloi and Jerome Ramatlhakwana, who are away on national duty. The duo's absence weakened the Magosi attack as Stanley Tsolope and Kekaetswe 'Mara' Moloi struggled. ECCO shocked Chiefs early in the game when Malepa 'Chippa' Bolelang opened the scoring from close range in the second minute. He capitalised on Chiefs' sloppy defending after receiving a cross from national Under-23 midfielder, Tebogo Sembowa. In the 12th minute, a dangerous cross from Aaron Kale was cleared for corner by ECCO's defence with veteran striker Molatlhegi 'Teenage' Podile waiting to pounce.

Chiefs levelled matters in the 16th minute through Kale who was a constant threat to ECCO with his runs. Podile made a good run and turned his marker before unleashing a shot which ECCO's keeper, Michael Onkutule failed to handle and Kale raised Chiefs' hopes with a cool finish. Winger Nicholas Mathare put ECCO back in front after Chiefs' goalkeeper, Noah Maposa failed to stop a shot in the 27th minute. In the 38th minute, Moloi failed to beat Onkutule in the ECCO goal after springing the offside trap. The goalkeeper was forced to make another good save just before half time to denying former Tsolope. ECCO led 2-1 at the break.

The two teams continued with good attacking football in the second half. ECCO captain, Bosarutweng 'Booster' Magola missed the ball but midfielder, Elijah Phiriepa's shot was parried away for a corner by Onkutule in the 47th minute. Moments later, Sembowa scored a classic goal with a curling shot at the far post, giving the visitors a 3-1 cushion after receiving a good pass from Tshokolo Nkola. Despite the introduction of winger Othusitse 'Jabu' Pilane in the 70th minute for Tsolope, it was ECCO who made their play count when Nkola was set up by Mandlaenkosi 'Sukunyetsa' Sibanda to score.

ECCO assistant coach, Atshele Molapi said that their game plan was to stay back and take Chiefs on counter attacks. 'We know that Chiefs play an attacking game but we knew that their defence normally cracks under pressure because we played them three times this season,' he said. He added that he is happy ECCO has recovered from a slump in form after the identical 3-0 thrashings by Township rollers and Uniao Flamengo Santos recently.

'We spoke to the players after the two games and told them to forget about the two defeats and focus on the other games because I think they were getting affected psychologically but they responded well. We gave them the example of Santos who we beat 5-1 in the first round only to come to Francistown with confidence and thrash us 3-0,' he said. Molapi disagreed with the notion that the Chiefs' game on Sunday could be the title decider.

However, he conceded that the win put his side in a good position. 'I think if we were leading by about 15 points, then we would be saying we will win the league, but now it is too early to say that because there are still plenty of games to be played,' he said.
Chiefs' assistant coach Daniel 'Chicco' Nare was unimpressed by the performance of his team. 'We were sluggish in defence and we did not play as a team but we must give credit to ECCO City Greens who played well today,' he said. Though the defeat cost Chiefs, Nare still fancy their chances as he believes there is still plenty to play for in the remaining games.