A number of teams are still looking for their first wins of the season when the Betway Premiership continues on Wednesday.
Stellenbosch v Cape Town City
Stellenbosch have Cape Town City in their sights after a shock opening day defeat to an in-form Golden Arrows.
Steve Barker’s side went down 2-0 at home to second-half goals from Siyanda Mthanti and Lungelo Nguse, but they had previously been in top form, securing their place in the final of the MTN8 while also progressing to the group stage of the CAF Champions League.
Their opponents this midweek are a Cape Town City side who managed to progress to the semi-finals of the MTN8 where they lost to Orlando Pirates, ahead of a 1-1 league draw with Royal AM. The Citizens managed to score early on through Prins Tijueza but failed to secure all three points as Motebang Sera netted a late equaliser.
Barker said on SuperSport: “It’s obviously not the result we wanted to start off the season in the league. Football can bring you back down to earth and humble you, so it’s not the start we wanted.
“I wouldn’t say I’m pleased with our performance (against Golden Arrows), but it didn’t warrant the two-nil loss. It puts us back down to earth and we need to get over this as quickly as possible and learn very quickly.
“We are on a learning curve with the club fighting on all of the fronts this season so it is important that we learn and move forward from this.
“We are still positive, it doesn’t help to dwell on this loss. We have to focus on the big derby in our next league game.”
SuperSport United v TS Galaxy
SuperSport United will be looking for their first points of the new season at home to TS Galaxy this week.
Matsatsantsa had a difficult first game of the campaign against Mamelodi Sundowns in a game they lost 2-0 to the champions, ahead of a 0-0 draw with Royal AM.
Galaxy are yet to find any form this season, losing 3-1 to Stellenbosch in the MTN8 and 1-0 to Richards Bay in their only league game to date.
After drawing with Royal AM, SuperSport assistant coach Andre Arendse said: “I do feel goalscoring is a bit of a problem for us with just two games in the season. It was a bit of bumpy pitch for both teams, obviously. It was very difficult to play football.”
“We have to bridge that gap. We can’t just have Bradley [Grobler] score 14 goals in the season and the next-best is two or three goals in a season – the others have to step up. Fair play to them, I thought we created chances. We just have to work on consistently finishing those chances.”
Galaxy head coach Sead Ramovic added: “I don’t want to see this kind of performance from our team, we know our strength and we have to be better.
“It was a disappointing game for us and I would like to apologise to our supporters for this kind of rubbish that we played. This was our worst performance since I came here. We have to find solutions to improve faster.
“All in all, it will be a tough season for us, but I’m still a positive guy and hopefully we can change this thing faster.”
Sekhukhune United v Chippa United
Sekhukhune United will be eager to make it two wins from two when they host Chippa United in the Betway Premiership on Wednesday.
Babina Noko kicked off their 2024/25 campaign with a 1-0 win over newly-promoted Magesi last week with a goal from Andy Boyeli on the stroke of half-time.
Since then though the club were eliminated from the CAF Confederations Cup despite beating Angolan side C.D. Lunda Sul 2-1 at the weekend. Lehlohonolo Seema’s charges went out on away goals as a result of their first leg 1-0 defeat.
Chippa, meanwhile, have played two league games; kicking off with a narrow 2-1 to Orlando Pirates ahead of a 1-0 victory over Richards Bay last time out, thanks to a Thabiso Kutumela own-goal.
Golden Arrows v Magesi
Golden Arrows will have surprised themselves with a perfect start to their campaign, beating Stellenbosch and Marumo Gallants both 2-0.
They face Magesi, who were unlucky to go down 1-0 to Sekhukhune in their opener, before a 2-0 reverse to Polokwane City.
Arrows head coach Mabhuti Khenyeza said: “We just need to focus on the future and forget about the past. We’ll only learn lessons from the past. Even in general life, we learn from the past and we move past it.
“If you dwell too much in the past, then you’ll build up a sense of fear of doing things because you keep reciting the last season. This is a new season.
“This is excellent for the players because they’ve been working and waiting for 9-10 weeks, so this actually belongs to them. We have to give them credit, there is a team spirit as well as the fighting spirit.”