Nedbank Cup 2018/19, Quarter-Final 1
Cape Umoya United vs TS Galaxy
Wednesday, March 27th
Athlone Stadium, Cape Town
Kick-off at 19:30 (7:30pm) CAT
Cape Umoya United and TS Galaxy may not be teams that are often talked about by some or even heard of by others around South Africa. This season though the pair – hailing from the National First Division – have fans rolling their names off their tongues and are fast becoming a reference point for the ultimate underdog story.
The fact of the matter is that we now find ourselves ahead of a
Nedbank Cup quarter-final featuring the two teams meaning that one of them will be heading into the last four of the competition. Fact.
Football fans will fondly remember Wigan Athletic’s unlikely triumph over Manchester City in England’s FA Cup back in 2013 or more recently Eintracht Frankfurt’s outrageous victory over Bayern Munich in the German Cup Final in 2018 in manager Niko Kovac’s final match before leaving to join the Bavarian giants. The Rainbow Nation may soon have a fairytale story of their own once again – following on from Free State Stars stunning success in the competition just one year ago.
Cape Umoya United were only formed at the start of the 2018/19 season following Platinum Stars’ relegation from the top-flight at the end of the 2017/18 campaign. After being bought out by a group based in the Mother City, the club changed its name and relocated to the coast.
They currently occupy 11
th place in the National First Division and while their promotion hopes have faded, their dream of silverware in their maiden season lives on. They have suffered just one defeat in their last 16 matches in all competitions since the end of November – a 2-1 loss at Richards Bay last month. They head into this clash off the back of successive victories in the league.
Manager Dominic Isaacs has seen his side progress to this stage thanks to victories over TS Sporting, TUT and Mbombela United in the previous rounds. The will face home comforts one again for the fourth consecutive round on Tuesday.
Cape Umoya United Nedbank Cup results:
01/12/2018 – Umoya 1-1 TS Sporting*
25/01/2019 – Umoya 2-1 TUT
15/02/2019 – Umoya 0-0 Mbombela**
*,** Umoya won 4-2 on penalties
Ubuntu Cape Town, last season’s surprise package in the competition when they reached the last eight, were beaten 2-1 at home by The Spirited Ones before United managed a hard-fought 1-0 win against Real Kings last weekend.
Cape Umoya United recent results:
17/03 – Umoya 1-0 Real Kings
10/03 – Ubuntu 1-2 Umoya
02/03 – Umoya 1-1 Cosmos
TS Galaxy hail from the town of Kameelrivier in Mpumalanga. Another side formed as recently as May 2018 and named after its owner Tim Suzuki who purchased the license for the side formerly known as Cape Town All Stars. They find themselves in 8
th spot on the NFD log, eight points adrift of the promotion play-off places with just six league games left to play.
Regardless of the result on Tuesday though, this season will be seen as a resounding success and bodes well for the future of the club. They secured their spot in the quarter-finals after impressive results over South African heavyweights Ajax Cape Town and Jomo Cosmos in the subsequent rounds.
TS Galaxy Nedbank Cup results:
02/12/2018 – Galaxy 5-2 Ajax CT
26/01/2019 – Umvoti 1-3 Galaxy
17/02/2019 – Cosmos 0-1 Galaxy
The Galaxy followed up victory over Jomo Cosmos in the round of 16 by beating them by the same 1-0 scoreline in the league, although head into this encounter having lost two of their last three matches since then. Ajax exacted revenge over them for their cup hammering last year before they were brought crashing back down to earth by Maccabi after their 4-1 win away at Witbank Spurs.
TS Galaxy recent results:
16/03 – Maccabi 1-0 Galaxy
09/03 – Spurs 1-4 Galaxy
03/03 – Ajax 3-1 Galaxy
The pair met for the very first time back in August, playing out to a 1-1 stalemate at the Kameelrivier Stadium in Mpumalanga. Zairon Abrahams had put the home side in front in the 68
th minute only for Nathan Paulse to equalise for the visitors a couple of minutes later.
When the duo faced-off in the corresponding league fixture last month, Sipho Senne scored a dramatic stoppage-time winner to seal all three points for Umoya.
Cape Umoya United vs TS Galaxy head-to-head:
01/02/2019 – Umoya 1-0 Galaxy
19/08/2018 – Galaxy 1-1 Umoya
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