Former Orlando Pirates striker sees positives in Veli Mothwa’s howlers

Published on by Joel Oliver

The ex-forward has explained how the AmaZulu goalkeeper can benefit from his errors

Former Orlando Pirates striker Phumudzo Manenzhe is of the view that coach Pablo Franco Martin should keep faith with goalkeeper Veli Mothwa following his costly error at the weekend.

Mothwa’s error saw Polokwane snatch all points in the final minutes of their PSL opening day clash against AmaZulu, the mistake coming just over a week since another one in the national team.

A high ball in the box saw the defenders leave it for Mothwa to gather and the goalkeeper seemed to have caught it but fumbled as the ball dropped from his hands and Thabang Matuludi was just at the right pace to poke it home deep in stoppage time.

The mistake saw the spotlight return to the goalkeeper again, after he failed to deal with another ball in Bafana Bafana’s 2-2 draw with Uganda on September 6, and calls have been growing for him to be dropped.

What positives do Manenzhe see in Mothwa’s error?

However, Manenzhe feels dropping Mothwa would not help him and drew comparisons with the situation of the man who scored the goal to punish his error.

“A positive would be in the last minute of the MTN8 game [quarter-final] Mamelodi Sundowns hosting Polokwane City, Matuludi scores an own goal and Polokwane are eliminated from the MTN8,” he said on SuperSport TV.

“Today [Saturday] in the last few seconds of the game, the same man that made a high-profile mistake in the important game in the MTN8 [Matuludi] comes in and is the man that scores the goal for Polokwane City.

“He repays the coach, the technical team and management for keeping faith in him after that high-profile mistake. He comes back and gives them the winner and all of that is forgotten.”

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Veli Mothwa – Photo by AmaZulu FC

The goalkeeper has been defended by his coach

Manenzhe’s view mirrors that of Mothwa’s coach who has defended the goalkeeper in the face of the criticism.

“We need to recover him because he’s our main goalkeeper. He is the only player since I came here that’s with Bafana Bafana and that’s because of something. Now we have to see if he can get back to his best as soon as possible,” Martin said after the game.

“He had a good game until that moment. The way he conceded he could do nothing from the situation. He was managing well, communicating well with the defence when he needed to leave the box to defend the through balls from the runs of the strikers, he was accurate.”

Polokwane visit newly-promoted Magesi FC in their next match on Saturday and observers will be keen to see how Martin handles the goalkeeper’s situation.

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Joel Oliver

Joel Oliver is a seasoned multimedia sports journalist with a rich background in covering diverse football stories and events in South Africa and beyond.
His extensive coverage spans subjects touching on the PSL, with a focus on the Big Three (Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs & Mamelodi Sundowns), Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana.