Mpheni Home Defenders line-up.
By: Refilwe Sebola
After securing a hard fought place in to the semifinals of the national ABC Motsepe league playoffs, Mpheni Home Defenders team sadly got eliminated via a lottery of penalties on Friday at the Harry Gwala stadium in Pietermaritzburg.
This after the Limpopo ABC Motsepe league champions came from a 1-0 deficit to force their game against a defensive Upington City in to a one-all draw in fulltime. Upinton were the first to score in the second half via a well taken free-kick which was softly parried by the Mpheni goalkeeper Ludick Mkhashwa to the path of the Upington striker who clinically finished with a simple header.
Mpheni started playing more on the front foot and were rewarded with the well deserved equaliser few minutes before the final whistle. The game was forced to be decided by the lottery of penalties and Mpheni unfortunately missed two penalties to the advantage of their Northern Cape opponents who won automatic promotion to the National First Division with a 3-2 victory.
This however was not the first time Mpheni had to come back from behind in the tournament to try and rescue the game from their opponents. They did the same in their opening group game against Mpumalanga based Mlambo Royal Cubs where they came from behind to win 4-2 in fulltime.
They had an opportunity to make a comeback even in the penalty kicks but their last kick hit the upright. Mpheni will now have to play for the third and fourth place consolation finish before heading back home to Elim to regroup for yet another long season in the ABC Motsepe league stream A.
Mpheni Home Defenders player (behind) tassel for the ball against Mlambo Royal Cubs player during their opening game of the playoffs. Mpheni won 4-2.