Cape Town - Cape Town City have been drawn to face Free State Stars in the semi-finals of the Telkom Knockout - and, with home advantage, the new Mother City PSL club certainly has a great opportunity to make its first appearance in a cup final.
In the other semi-final, SuperSport United will take on Orlando Pirates, which presents a really mouth-watering clash, especially considering that the Pretoria team hammered the Soweto giants 6-1 in the league last week.
The semis are scheduled to be played on the weekend of November 26.
Free State Stars should provide stern, competitive opposition for the Cape side, though. Yesterday, they dispatched of Kaizer Chiefs to secure their place in the last four. The match ended in a 2-2 draw after 120 minutes, with the Free Staters winning the penalty shootout 6-5.
But, for City, the semi-final slot is another feather in the cap. Formed when John Comitis purchased the PSL franchise of Mpumalanga Black Aces in June, in the short period of time since then, City have made giant strides as a club. They qualified for the semi-finals of the MTN8, they are currently in a lofty fifth position on the PSL standings, just two points off pacesetters Wits, and now they are in another semi-final.
City qualified for the last four with a 4-3 win over a plucky Baroka FC on Saturday. They didn’t have it all their own way, though. While they dominated the opening 30 minutes, and should have killed off the game during that period, the hard-working Baroka team never gave up and made a real game of it. It was Cup football at its best. Despite being 2-0 down after 20 minutes, Baroka rallied and proceeded to match City pound-for-pound, goal for goal. The Capetonians needed a winner from Sibusiso Masina deep into the second half of extra-time to snatch a place in the last four of the competition.
“We should have wrapped it up early in the game,” said Eric Tinkler. “We should have had at least three goals … Then we let ourselves down right in the dying minutes of the first half from a set-piece - they got the goal and it put us under pressure. After they got the second goal to equalise, it became a bit of a scrap. We got the lead, then defended poorly and they scored again. We got the winner right at the death, and it was certainly entertaining for the fans.”
But it’s not that City played poorly. They may have had a few poor moments - but, overall, the 4-3 result is a testament to the spirit and determined effort of Baroka. City played extremely well in a devastating opening spell, and that’s a plus as they prepare for the semi-finals.
Cape Times