THEMBA Zzwane. THE clichés, whichever ones you may think of, will be apt. No doubt the one foremost in everyone’s mind will be that relating to fermented grapes.
On a night when the Tshwane derby was threatening to deviate from the norm, the clash between Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United seemingly petering towards a rare goalless draw, the old geezer got off the bench and turned the match on its head. The champions won 2-0.
Zwane, now 35 and clearly maturing like good wine, created the opening goal for the Brazilians debutant Iqraam Rayners with a deft back heel to break what had hitherto been an impressive resistance by Matsatsantsa a Pitori.
It was an inspired three-way change by Coach Manqoba Mngqithi who introduced Zwane for Marcelo Allende, Aubrey Modiba for Lebogang Maboe and Tashreeq Matthews for Peter Shalulile. Lucas Ribeiro Costa scored the second goal two minutes after Rayners had opened the scoring, and a match that was evenly-contested and seemed likely to end in a stalemate descended into a no contest.
On an evening when the big talk was about the absence of stalwarts Teboho Mokoena and Khuliso Mudau for apparent disciplinary purposes it was strange that Mngqithi kept the captain on the bench.
And it was not surprising that Sundowns resembled a bird without a song sans the player nicknamed Mshishi with the first 45 minutes of this opening match of the campaign for the Tshwane sides went down as an episode in the derby’s illustrious story best forgotten.
Mngqithi, clearly not bothered by the general feeling he should not tinker with the team that delivered the championship under the departed Rulani Mokwena, continued with his experimenting – giving the likes of Rayners his debut.
He had to act though as Sundowns struggled to open SuperSport up and who better to call on than Zwane. With his first touch, Zwane created the goal for Rayners and that was all she wrote really because two minutes later Costa would put the match to bed.
The Brazilian striker was sent sailing by the other substitute Matthews with a sublime through pass and he expertly dinked the ball over the advancing Ricardo Goss in the SuperSport goals.
Killing the match off and ensuring that the defending champions began the campaign with a victory. Surely, they are not going to let their title away that cheaply and as Mngqithi said in the build up to the season – they want to be the first ones to win the new trophy under new sponsors Betway.
And what would also have been a sign to the rest of the league that Sundowns are the outright favourites for the title was the great saves that goalkeeper Williams pulling off some fantastic saves on the rare occasions he was called on to.
Expectedly, Mngqithi was not completely pleased: “We are not ruthless enough. We create good chances, but we are hoping that the team will improve because the team needs to start taking those chances.”