Paarl thumps Sundowns
2006-11-02
THE Paarl Soccer Club caused the upset of the year in the fold of the Drakenstein Local Football Association when they beat the much vaunted Mbekweni Sundowns Football Club in their last 16 Mayoral cup fixture in the Mbekweni Stadium on Friday evening.
The match started at a dizzying pace with the semi-professional outfit of Mbekweni making most of the play in the first half.
The Paarl defence withstood the early onslaught of the Sundowns attack with central defender Abraham Keet and goalkeeper Martin Minnaar outstanding in this regard.
Time and again the Sundowns attackers were caught in an offside trap with Keet marshalling the defence and Minnaar doing the mopping up with great efficiency.
Martin Minnaar was also named the Man of the Match for the Paarl side with his brilliant performance in goal.
The first half ended 0-0 with possession and territory statistics belonging to the Sundowns team.
Early in the second half, the Paarl attacking trio of Anthony Chapman, Leroy Prins and ex-Sundowns player Sivuyile Manyonga, created an opportunity with Prins being sent in the clear and duly converting the opportunity to put the visitors 1-0 up against the run of play.
The midfield battle seemed to be a crucial one with Chapman and van der Berg making crucial tackles to stop the Sundowns attack and to set up the visiting strikers for onslaughts on the Sundowns goal.
The relentless Paarl team created a second opportunity for the speedy Prins and he coolly converted the opportunity in the far corner to complete his brace of goals.
This lead to the Sundowns team pushing more players into attacking positions, but with Keet marshalling the defence brilliantly, also allowed Paarl to exploit the lack of defenders at the back.
Manyonga got the third goal much to the delight of the crowd and to the chagrin of the Sundowns players. Anthony Chapman got the fourth goal for Paarl in the 73rd minute when he coolly converted his opportunity by slamming the ball in the roof of the Sundowns goal.
The home side got a consolation goal in the 84th minute of play when a Sundowns player latched onto a ball palmed out of the area by Minnaar and heading it into an empty net. The final score was 4-1 in favour of the visitors with the backbone of the Paarl side made up of experienced over 35 players such as Keet, James Philander, Lindsay van der Berg and Kelvin McKenzi.
Paarl now plays in the quarter finals to be held on Saturday against opponents to be determined in the other last 16 play-offs.
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