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OPENING STALEMATES!

14/12/2020 06:44:00 BY LWAZI DLAMINI

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Sports Editor

(At Mavuso Sports Centre)

MANZINI – An open weekend of draws!

The start of the 2020/2021 MTN league, in the new normal and without the fans, might have lacked the buzz and fanfare but as a spectacle the 15 goals netted over the opening round of fixtures was not a bad return after exactly nine months of inaction.

If the cobby-webby football on display wasn’t pleasing to the eye, the stadium feeling as deserted as cemeteries without the ear-piercing sounds of the vuvuzelas, the shocking cancellation of yesterday’s clash at King Sobhuza II Memorial because one of the teams, Pigg’s Peak Black Swallows, arrived 23 minutes late, took our football donkey years back.

Saturday’s cancelled clash between Moneni Pirates and Mhlume Peacemakers due to some players testing positives for COVID-19 in both camps, yesterday’s unfortunate scenario in Nhlangano is a sad reminder that some teams, for a lack of a better word, do not deserve to be in the elite league. It punches more holes on the decision to increase the teams to 16 in a country of just one million people. The administration bungling aside, from down south at King Sobhuza II Memorial Stadium to Mavuso Sports Centre and Mayaluka Stadium, the glut of goals are an indication that we could be in store for one of the fiercely contested leagues in the 20-year MTN sponsored league era.

For the first time, the innovation of live-streaming of the MTN games began with the ‘clash of the weekend’, Mbabane Swallows against Young Buffaloes and at least 300 people were able to utilise the new platform of watching live games in the COVID-19 pandemic era.

A revived Manzini Wanderers, showing inventiveness and hunger that has deserted them for so long, were held to a 2-all draw by Denver Sundowns before the defending league champions, Young Buffaloes settled for a goalless draw with Mbabane Swallows in a tightly-contested clash at Mavuso Sports Centre yesterday.

Draw

Expensively-assembled Mbabane Highlanders also played to a 2-all draw with Royal Leopard at King Sobhuza II Memorial Stadium, with former Mbabane Swallows striker Sabelo ‘Sikhali’ Ndzinisa scoring on his debut while premier league rookies, Tinyosi FC, stung hapless Malanti Chiefs 2-0 at the Prince of Wales Sports Ground.

Another new comer in Tambankulu Callies got a rude awakening in the elite league at Mayaluka Stadium, when they were thrashed 3-0 by Tambuti FC, who shot to the top of the pile in the opening round of the fixtures.

Green Mamba were held to a 1-all draw by a brave Milling Hotspurs at Nsukuwansuku Stadium on Saturday to set the tone for the weekend of draws in the MTN league.