CAPE Town City have yet to score a goal since the departure of coach Jan Olde Riekerink after being held by 10-man Maritzburg United to a consecutive goalless draw at Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday evening.
The visitors were reduced to 10-men for the second consecutive time against City after Fares Hachi was given his marching orders midway through the second half. Hachi was cautioned in the first stanza for a foul on Fagrie Lakay before the Algerian was awarded a second yellow card, and the resultant red, for a late tackle on Thabo Nodada.
The match never reached any major heights with both teams unable to create any clear cut goal-scoring chances. It certainly wasn’t expected after the home team began in enterprising fashion through Tokyo Olympics hopeful Lakay. The SA Under-23 international harassed the Maritzburg defence throughout the night.
However, the Maritzburg defence stood firm with former Capetonian Clayton Daniels showing off all his experience by staying glued to Lakay, and also City’s other main attacking threat Nodada for the duration of the 90 minutes.
Nodada, though, is a silky character and managed to rid himself from Daniels’ close attention on a couple of occasions, and almost created an opener for winger Aubrey Ngoma midway through the first half.
The City playmaker went on a piercing run towards the Maritzburg goal area before neatly slipping the ball back into Ngoma’s path, but the No 10’s left foot shot slid agonisingly wide of the far post.
That was, unfortunately, the closest either team got to putting the ball in the back of the net on a disappointing evening at the former Fifa 2010 World Cup venue.
IOL Sport