Johannesburg — The dream of CAF Confederation Cup glory for Marumo Gallants now hangs in the balance following a 2-0 semi-final first leg defeat to Young Africans on Wednesday which could so easily have been kept to just one goal.
But late in the match inside the magnificent National Stadium of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam, Gallants failed to live up to their name as they seemed to meekly capitulate.
At 1-0 with just the four minutes of added on time to play, all the South African team had to do was hold on for a narrow defeat.
Incredibly, they appeared to switch off and allowed Young Africans to score a second goal.
Substitute Bernard Morrison gave the home side the cushion that will see them making the trip down to South Africa for the second leg clash at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium with confidence.
The Ghanaian was on the end of a counter-attack that saw Washington Arubi having to leave his goal to try and stop him.
But the attempts by Gallants’ Zimbabwean goalkeeper and defender Tshepo Gumede succeeded in only taking possession away from Morrison briefly as they both fell to the ground.
Morrison was quick to leap to his feet and pop the ball into the empty net from an awkward angle.
‘Yanga’ had taken the lead on 64 minutes via Burkina Faso’s Stephane Aziz Ki, who shot home from inside the box after a great attack from the right ended with him being teed up by Fiston Mayele.
Though seemingly soundly beaten, Gallants will look back at this match and rue not having given themselves a better chance for the second leg.
Raymond Mdaka’s men battled hard against an outfit that enjoyed great support and the Limpopo outfit wasted two good chances in the second half. Talismanic striker Ranga Chivaviro missed successive opportunities within three minutes of each other early in the second half.
On 55 minutes, he was set up by Letise Koapeng via a sweet through ball, but the striker directed it wide of goal.
Chivaviro got another opportunity on 58 minutes but fluffed his lines again.
Gallants had found the net in the first half but the goal was rightly ruled out for offside by the Egyptian referee.
The initial 45 minutes had been a tense affair which saw both sides asking questions without getting the breakthrough.
Matters improved after the break with the match a much more open contest, as both sides searched for that vital opening goal but Gallants left themselves open at the back and were duly punished by Ki.
They looked to be holding their own, and even made some inroads to try and restore parity, only to find their adversaries uncompromising in defence.
And then they incredibly went to sleep at the end of the match to allow ‘Yanga’ to double their lead, which has now left them with a mammoth task in the second leg on Wednesday if they are to reach the final.
IOL Sport