Posted on December 17, 2011 21:47
Free Staee Stars dominated what was an entertaining encounter at the FNB Stadium but ended up in an unfortunate defeat to Kaizer Chiefs on Saturday.
Chiefs were virtually outplayed for 75 minutes and trailed after a quarter of an
hour. They held no menace until asubstitution for saw
Sthembiso Ngcobo equalise for the home team in the 76th minute.
Four minutes later Lincoln Zvasiya stole the victory with a speculative
long-range shot, only to see Stars keeper make a severe blunder and gift
Amakhosi the three points.
The visitors began the game with more intensity as Stars opened the
scoring in the 15th minute through an unstoppable strike from Edward
Manqele.
The forward timed his run well to edge ahead of the Chiefs defence, as
he gathered a lofted cross, and then finished off with a powerful shot
deflecting into the net off the crossbar for his fifth goal of the season.
Ea Lla Koto , spurred on by the early goal, looked the more fluent side
and stretched the Soweto giants' defence for most of the first period.
Stars keeper Kennedy Mweene was little more than an interested spectator
in the first half as he only had to deal with two tame shots on target.
Two minutes short of the hour mark, Chiefs came close to scoring.
Bernard Parker broke his marker on the right-hand touchline and whipped
in a cross into the box, where Mandla Masango rose above the Stars
defence but headed his shot over goal.
With little under 25 minutes remaining in the encounter, and still
trailing by a goal, up stepped Ngcobo as he beat two defenders to meet a
cross in the area, and his header gave Mweene no chance as the scores
were levelled.
Vladimir Vermezovic would have been resigning himself to two points lost
at home, when Zvasiya's shot from nearly 30 metres out should have been
no problem for Mweene.
But the Stars shot-stopper allowed it to bounce and could only watch the
Chiefs celebrations as they led for the first time in the match.
The Free Staters, after conceding the two goals, looked a predictably
deflated side as Amakhosi rose to third on the log with 27 points.
They are now just one point behind joint-leaders SuperSport United and
Mamelodi Sundowns. Stars, meanwhile, drop to fifth - now three places
behind the Naturena outfit.