27 Mar 2017

Tafic Football club continued their dominance of the Debswana First Division North (FDN) league by humiliating their cross-town rivals, Ecco City Greens with a 4-1 drubbing on Sunday at the old Francistown Stadium.
Clearly the most attended football encounter this season in the country’s second city, the match saw the stadium filled to the rafters, with some spectators using the rooftops of nearby Area S houses.
Tafic came into the encounter beaming with confidence after their 1-0 away win against Maun Tigers the previous weekend and their top most position on the Debswana FDN league log with 40 points, while their opponents were pegged at position six with just 28 points.
Matjimenyenga boys, as Tafic is popularly known, is certainly chasing promotion to the BTC Premiership league and the weekend encounter was a must win for them to keep such ambitions alive.
That Tafic was going to triumph was almost certain considering that in their first leg clash, they had easily trodden over Mamoja Diski, as Ecco is popularly known around soccer circles, with a convincing 3-1 win.
As soon as referee, Keabetswe Dintwa had blown the first whistle, Tafic immediately showed their intentions through countless attacks coming from the midfield and both sides of the field, with Uyapo Tibathuwe and the hard-working Elijah Motseoatile supplying.
On the 12th minute, the marauding Elias dribbled his way past the Ecco defence and unleashed a thunderous strike that easily beat Ecco’s keeper to put Tafic on an early lead.
Two minutes later, the stadium erupted into cheers and applause as Tafic’s second goal rattled the back of the opponent’s net through the dread-locked Mmoloki Kafuku’s tricky and powerful grass-cutter.
Ecco needed to do something and they substituted Thobogeng Monnawarona for Cosmos Sebona and Gift Nelson for Oarabile Powe as early as the 27th minute, but Tafic kept pressing hard for more goals.
On the 38th minute, Tafic’s Ogomoditse Bauline’s set-piece curler nearly found the back of the net but missed by inches, and immediately after that, once again Kafuku got his second goal of the game and the third for Tafic to ensure his team led 3-0 before the half time mark.
In the second half, on the 60th minute, Elias, on a breakthrough attack, failed to beat Ecco’s goal minder to increase Tafic’s lead to four; likewise, on the 66th minute, Ecco’s Onkemetse Powe, with only the Tafic goalkeeper Abednego Morapetdi to beat, failed to get his team a relief goal.
At this moment, Ecco supporters’ disappointment was there for all to see as they yelled and chanted songs in the direction of the team’s technical bench insinuating that the officials had sold the game.
Meanwhile, on the field of play, Tafic was making changes, pulling out Elias and Steward Matlala, but later, Ecco finally got their first goal through their first substitute, Sebona, who simply slotted in a set-piece that Tafic keeper Morapedi should have easily saved.
With the scoreline reading 3-1, Tafic kept pushing for more scores and one came on the 74th minute when Kemoreng Batisani scored for his side to make it 4-1, and from that time, both teams made their last substitutions just before the last while blew.
Now Tafic has to win their remaining three matches, one home against Sua Flamingoes and two away to Chobe United and Motlakase Power Dynamos to secure automatic promotion, which at this stage appears to be an eventuality for the north eastern team. ENDS