Sundaymail Editor
Online Reporter
PROMISING Zimbabwe striker Douglas Mapfumo will be hoping to add another chapter to his fine start to life in the South African elite football when his side Cape Town City host Moroka Swallows in a MTN8 semi-final first-leg clash at Athlone on Sunday.
Mapfumo, who burst onto the South African scene straight from Legends cademy in Harare, got off to just the sort of start he had hoped for at Cape Town City.
He made his debut with a substitute appearance when the Citizens knocked out Benni McCarthy’s AmaZulu with a 2-1 win in the MTN8 quarter-final three weeks ago.
Since that game, the 21-year-old Mapfumo has since been handed two starts by coach Eric Tinker.
He featured in two DStv Premiership matches against Kaitano Tembo’s SuperSport United, which ended 0-0.
He also started and finished the game as Cape Town City picked up their first win of the campaign in the DStv Premiership with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Royal AM in a mid-week game.
The new signing started upfront and Craig Martin came in for Khanyisa Mayo as City targeted their first league win of the season against a tough Royal AM outfit.
On Sunday, he hopes to give Cape Town the upper hand ahead of the return leg at Dobsonville in Johannesburg.
In the first of the semi-final ties, Mamelodi Sundowns grabbed a crucial late away goal to force a 1-1 draw with Golden Arrows in their first-leg clash at Sugar Ray Xulu in Durban on Saturday.
Warriors’ defender Divine Lunga was conspicuous by his absence from the match-day squad for Premiership champions Sundowns.
The Brazilians had Thapelo Morena, Kermit Erasmus, Gaston Sirino, Andile Jali and Siphelele Mkhulise thrust into the starting line-up.
According to reports from Durban, new arrival Nqobeko Dlamini, signed from Tuks, gave Arrows the lead after just six minutes with a superb strike after skipping between the two Downs central midfielders, and his left-footed strike from 25 yards out skidded through on the wet turf and into the bottom right corner.
Sundowns equalised and grabbed a crucial away goal five minutes from time.
Kutumela delivered from the right and Mlungwana couldn’t hold onto the ball, with Safranko tapping the rebound into the back of the net for his first goal in a Brazilians shirt.
The wind and rain was making life a bit more difficult for the players.
For Golden Arrows, another Zimbabwean international, Knox Mutizwa, started on the bench.
Online Reporter