29 Jan 2017

Township Rollers learned the hard way on after they were outclassed and dismantled by a highly tactical Orapa United side in a Mascom Top8 semi final first leg encounter at the Francistown Sports Complex Friay night

The Ostriches, as Orapa United are affectionately known, came with guns blazing against their sworn enemy, Rollers, who beat them 4-1 last weekend in a BTC Premiership League meet.

For the Friday  encounter, the Township Rollers new head coach, Mogomotsi “Teenage” Mpote, settled for the same strategy he used in his second win against Orapa United in his new job over the weekend, being a 4-3-3 formation which saw Edwin Moalosi, Lemponye Tshireletso and Terrance Mandaza leading all attacks while Simisane Mathumo paired with Mogogi Gabonamong and Tshepo Motlhabankwe to shield all the Ostriches attacks.

Madinda Ndlovu made a gamble with two of his newly acquired players from Nico United, in Gift ‘Gippa’ Moyo and Nelson ‘Nakata’ Moreetsi, but still marshalled his star players in the likes of Tendai Nyumasi, Ronald Chikomo and Thabang Mosige to bring him results.

When the first whistle blew, the Township Rollers hordes of supporters cheered on loudly as Segolame Boy and Lawrence Majawa made first attempts at goal as early as the first minute of the game.

Orapa United on the other hand looked rusty and unstable for the first 10 minutes and gave away silly set-pieces and corner kicks which Moalosi and Boy took, but delivered them to their opponents.

Going into the 10 minutes time, Orapa United started to coordinate well and took advantage of their home crowd when on the 10th minute, Lesenya Ramoraka made a run on the left flank and made a brilliant pass to Omaatla Kebatho who unleashed a grass cutter to the far left corner of Rollers goal post, beating Mampule Masule in the process and securing Orapa United’s early goal.

This goal gave Orapa United more confidence as now, Omaatla, Nyumasi and Lemogang Maswena pushed hard for another goal and together nearly got their prayers answered on the 15th minutes after their superb back-to-back passes and headers confused the Popa Popa defence and nearly gave the Ostriches another goal.

With the Ostriches causing more upset on attack, Rollers’ defence began to crumble.

However, Lemponye Tshireletso’s brilliant pace and attempt at goal nearly gave Popa Popa an equaliser on the 18th minute but his supply into the Ostriches goal box found none of his teammates present to make clinical finishes.

The newly acquired Orapa United duo of Moyo and Moreetsi had a good game with Gift keeping a watchful eye on Tshepo Motlhabankwe to prevent him from making crosses to the Orapa United sides.

With the game heating up, Kebatho continued to be a menace to the napping Rollers defence, dismantling it at any given time, however, still poorly coordinating with

Ronald Chikomo and Nyumasi to find the back of the net for their side for the second time.

Tactically, Orapa United was the better side and Rollers displayed poor showing whenever they moved forward in attack as the passes were often easily intercepted by their opponents.

On the 39th minute, a Mandaza’s wide strike missed a goal post by inches after a parried strike by Orapa United captain, Thabang Mosige, landed on Mandaza’s feet.

The two teams went for recess with a 1-0 score margin in favour of the home side.

The second half saw Township Rollers trying to redeem their attacking strategies but still not connecting together as a unit.

They had lost concentration and this cost them as on the 55 minute, a well taken set-piece from Lebogang Maswena into Rollers goal post was met by  Nyumasi who slotted in Orapa United’s second goal.

Sensing trouble, Mpote substituted Edwin Moalosi for Joel Mogorosi on the 59th minutes.

His substitution did not make any meaningful change to the Rollers play as it, instead continued to spiral downward.

There was another goal scoring opportunity for Popa on the 66th minute, when a Lemponye Tshireletso’s thundersrike deflected on Olekantse Mambo’s header.

The Rollers substitution continued as Segolame Boy was pulled out by Mpote for Kekaetswe “Mara” Moloi who went on to secure a yellow card few minutes into the game.

They also substituted Mandaza for the Senegalese born Pape Andoulaye Ndaw.

Orapa United on the other hand substituted Kebatho for Zebron Ndjovo and Moyo for Patrick Lenyeletse and lastly Moreetsi for Obonye Moswate.

Despite all their last minutes efforts Rollers could not secure much needed away goals to help them in the second leg to be played a month away in Gaborone.

In a post-match interview, Mpote remarked that his side lost the game because his players decided to change his game plan as early as five minutes into the game.

“We had a very strong defence and our plan was to win Orapa United on the midfield and take their last line of defence but my players failed to guard against an early goal which totally dismantled all our game plan. We will work on this game plan and come back stronger,” Mpote said.

On the other hand, his Orapa United counterpart, Madinda Ndlovu stated that he was happy with the way his charges played, saying, they followed his game plan to the letter. BOPA