There must be something in the Cape Town air that just brings the best out of Lebogang Manyama. The Cape Town City captain came off the bench on Tuesday to inspire the new PSL club to a 2-0 win over Polokwane City at the Cape Town Stadium.
Tuesday night’s match was City’s inaugural fixture as a PSL club and the journey continues tomorrow when they host Kaizer Chiefs in an MTN8 quarterfinal at the Cape Town Stadium (kick-off 8pm).
While all the focus was on the formation of City as the Cape’s second topflight team, and the players produced a solid opening 45 minutes in their debut game against Polokwane, it was only the introduction of the inimitable Manyama in the 57th minute that provided the catalyst for the historic opening victory.
Up to that stage, City were industrious and purposeful, interspersed with quite a few nervy moments as the opposition grew stronger, but the injection of the speedy, tricky Manyama eventually fired up the triumphant Capetonians. The 25-year-old is an infectious footballer, he makes things happen, and his presence, desire and quick feet and trickery had Polokwane in a spin.
Manyama is no stranger to the Mother City. Originally from Tembisa in Gauteng, he arrived in the Cape in 2010 to join neighbours Ajax Cape Town. After a hugely successful spell, he was on the shopping list of the big clubs, and it was SuperSport United who eventually got him to put pen to paper in 2013. But it never really worked out in Pretoria and Manyama was soon off to Mpumalanga Black Aces, and it was there that he re-discovered his form. With Black Aces having evolved into City, and Manyama back in the familiar surroundings of the Mother City, he has quickly demonstrated to the PSL: Watch out, I’m back!
City coach Eric Tinkler explained why Manyama was initially on the bench on Tuesday - and why the player was likely to be used in the same way against Chiefs tomorrow.
“Lebo (Manyama) has been injured for a while,” said Tinkler. “When I arrived, he was still out - In fact he hasn’t trained with the team, we’ve only had him doing conditioning and strengthening. After consulting the medical staff, we then gave him 20 minutes in a friendly last week, and that’s all the football he’s had for the last few months.
“I knew I had to be careful in how I handled his recovery, and the idea was always to bring him on slowly. I had him on the bench against Polokwane and I didn’t really know how long he would be able to go. It was a risk to use him, I suppose. But he had about 30 minutes, which was very good; he came through unscathed and that’s great for us. When Lebo came on, he gave us more stability and added more creativity to the team.” - Cape Times