The past week’s Nedbank Cup action was properly entertaining – on and off the pitch

After having to toil for their wins, Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates have thankfully made the semi-finals of this season’s Nedbank Cup.

The icing on the cake was the progression of Stellenbosch FC, too, who are arguably the best team in the Premier Soccer League at present based on form. They won their quarter-final match in style, too, slaying SuperSport United 4-0 at home on Saturday afternoon to make their second semi-final appearance in a cup competition this season, after they also went all the way to, of course, win the inaugural Carling Knockout earlier in the season.

The progression of those three sides makes for the semi-final line-up that I was praying for, and one that I predicted after the quarter-final draw was done a few weeks ago. I wrote then that we, the long-suffering PSL supporters, needed all three teams in the semis so we could continue to watch teams that play proper football in this year’s tournament.

And that is what we now have, with the fourth team being Chippa United, who were confirmed on Sunday after they beat TS Galaxy. Their reward for that win is a semi-final date with Pirates at home, while Stellenbosch will host Sundowns.

I was not only happy with the progression of Sundowns, Stellenbosch, and Pirates, but also the manner in which they did it. On Friday, the all-conquering Sundowns did it the hard way against the only lower-division side that was left in the competition, the University of Pretoria, beating them 4-3 on penalties after a surprising 1-all stalemate at the end of the 120 minutes.

AmaTuks made a proper contest of what was widely expected to be a landslide victory for the Brazilians by defending well and showing great discipline and tactical strength. But if it were not to be during open play that Sundowns were to conquer, like they so often do, it were to be in the shootout, where Ronwen Williams saved two spot kicks, while his teammates scored some of the finest penalties you will see in world football!

Marcelo Allende, Lucas Ribeiro, Mothobi Mvala, and Peter Shalulile all found the back of the net to see their side advance in the end. A day later, Stellenbosch made light work of a SuperSport United side that I find to be rather nondescript and average by playing possession football and taking their scoring chances. The United coach Gavin Hunt, who never fails to make excuses for why they lost, this time blamed what he described the poor condition of the Danie Craven Stadium pitch for his side’s failure to have any kind of control in the match.

The AmaZulu-Pirates contest should be the pick of the matches in the quarter-finals, not only because six goals were scored in it, but also because of the immense intensity with which it was played by both sides throughout the 90 minutes. It is in such matches that you see just how good a squad Pirates has; just how strong a team they are, and just how far they can go into being an all-conquering side if they were to play against opponents of a higher quality in competitions such as the CAF Champions League on a regular basis.

But instead, they inexplicably struggle to do so, and they might just miss out on the opportunity to play in the Champions League again next season, with Stellenbosch making a serious push for a second place finish on the DStv Premiership log. Coach Jose Riveiro seems to be unable to get them to kick into the right gears in the league, or to inspire them to perform like they did on Saturday consistently, good a team as they already are.

The Spaniard also exposed his own lies in the post-match press conference after their 4-2 win at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, having insisted in the pre-match presser last week that his side is, in fact, consistent in the league. He went on to make a weak attempt to explain why they’re struggling to keep up with Sundowns on the log, if this is true, by insinuating that the latter get help from the referees.

This is why I enjoyed listening to a journalist asking him on Saturday why Pirates just can’t seem to replicate the same spirit and aggression in league games. Riveiro, who had also said that there are “many, many, many reasons” why Sundowns were ahead of them, took the opportunity to self-correct in reply…

“The reasons, there’s not only one, there’s multiple. I think, little by little, we are growing as a group, as a team, to have the capacity to compete every day and not having distractions. Not thinking this game is more important than the next one. Because in this environment, we have to play many different competitions during the season, and sometimes (they) are happening at the same time: Champions League, MTN, league; and having the capacity to perform in each and every game, and in each and every competition, is probably the thing that we need to learn to do better.

“Because the team is the same, when they play MTN; when we play the league, it’s the same, but the outcome is not the same. So, probably, it’s one of the things that we need to improve [in] the future if we want to be competitive in every competition.”

* Featured image: Nedbank Cup