AFRICAN Stars midfielder Rudi Louw secured a historic clean sweep of domestic football honours for his side this season as they won the Leo NFA Cup to add to their league crown.
Stars defeated Civics 1-0 in the final of an unsavoury match played at the Independence Stadium on Saturday. The cup final was only the second match, after the Global United FC exhibition match last Wednesday, to be played at the ‘revamped’ Independence Stadium pitch that appeared to have hosted livestock in recent times. The match itself lacked in quality; dubious refereeing provided added tension and the unwarranted missile-throwing antics by unruly Stars supporters cast a dampener on proceedings. Civics team manager Paul Stramis said his side only had themselves to blame for not capitalising on their chances and preferred not to get drawn into the refereeing saga.’We were supposed to win. We dominated but one goal won the game,’ Stramis said.’I will not comment on the referee. He has his own motives for the decisions he made. There were some dubious fouls in the game but at the end of the day I congratulate African Stars for putting up a great fight.’Denis Ngueza was sent off just before halftime for dishing out rough treatment to his tormentor on the day, Bradley Wermann, who carried the lively Civics front line in the opening exchanges of the game. However they failed to capitalise on their numerical advantage and to convert their half chances, as Stars came back strongly into the match during the second half.The player of the series, Stars goalkeeper Max Mbaeva, pulled off a string of fine saves to foil Civics attackers throughout the match, most notably a goal-bound close-range header by Pineas Jacob in the second half. The turning point of the match came when Civics midfielder Tugela Tuyeni was harshly sent off for winning a 50/50 ball against Ninja Karongee before the end of the first half of extra time. Stars took full advantage of the ensuing mayhem as Louw blasted the ball into the Civics goal. Civics failed to clear Louw’s initial cross and when the ball broke loose in the six-metre area, the Stars live wire reacted quickest to score the winning goal. The goal ignited wild celebrations from Stars’ followers who began throwing beer tins onto the pitch, with the match held up for over five minutes as a result. Civics did not recover as Stars secured the league and cup double. As the winning team, Stars pocketed N$600 000 while Civics received the runners-up cheque of N$250 000 for their efforts.
