Cape Town - History beckons for Sekhukhune United as they chase a first cup final berth after they defeated hosts Chippa United in their Nedbank Cup quarter-final at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Sunday.
Reaching the semi-finals is a first for Sekhukhune, who had never progressed beyond the opening round before.
Last season they were eliminated in the opening round by the First Division side Platinum City Rovers who won on penalties after the match ended 1-1 after extra-time.
Sunday’s outcome was also a personal triumph for coach Brandon ‘Brakkies’ Truter. He has guided a team to a cup semi-final for the second time this season.
A few months ago, while Truter was the coach at AmaZulu FC, he steered the team to the MTN8 semi-final round. A few days after AmaZulu defeated Chiefs to reach the MTN8 final, Truter was shown the door because of poor league results.
The relegation-threatened Chippa offered formidable resistance to Sekhukhune, who are seventh on the Premiership standings.
Chippa suffered an opening minute setback after Sekhukhune scored. They managed to snatch an equaliser but conceded a goal just before the break. In the end, that goal proved decisive after a scoreless second half.
After Sunday’s game, Truter said it was the first time Sekhukhune defeated Chippa in any competition, and it came at a good time.
“This win could not come at a better time because it allowed us to reach the semi-final,” said Truter.
“Everybody, from the staff, the technical management and the players are happy.
“We managed to score very early, and after that they turned on the pressure. They managed a score from a set-piece after miscommunication between our goalkeeper and the defence.
“It is something to work on in future.
“We managed to score just before half-time, and that allowed us to be calm as we managed the game to keep our lead intact.
“They came at us really hard in the second half because they had nothing to lose, but I was grateful for the shift the boys put in to make us victorious.”
In the semi-finals, Sekhukhune will play Stellenbosch FC, who defeated the mighty Mamelodi Sundowns in the quarter-finals with a come-from-behind 2-1 win.
Home advantage will be huge for Stellenbosch in this fixture, though Sekhukhune did claim a 1-0 league win at the Danie Craven Stadium in January when Nigerian forward Chibuike Ohizu scored the only goal.
But Stellenbosch are vastly improved since then and have won four of their last five home games, The only blemish was a 1-1 league draw with Sundowns where they again troubled the runaway DStv Premiership champions.
The other three meetings between Stellenbosch and Sekhukhune all ended 1-1, so the Cape Winelands club have yet to get a win against their opponents.
Stellenbosch are the leading scorers in this year’s Nedbank Cup with 11 goals in their three games to date, which includes the epic 6-3 last-16 victory at TS Galaxy.
They also have the leading individual scorer in Iqraam Rayners, who has six goals in three games having netted braces in each round. In total he has 11 goals in nine appearances since returning to Stellies from SuperSport United in January.
Sekhukhune have 10 goals in this year’s Nedbank Cup after thumping fourth-tier Liver Brothers 6-0 in the last 32, beating Cape Town Spurs 2-0 in the last 16, and then their 2-1 quarter-final victory at Chippa.
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