MTN8 winner with Golden Arrows, Njabulo Manqana, has backed AmaZulu to create history by winning the Wafa Wafa final at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday.
Unlike Orlando Pirates assistant coach Mandla Ncikazi who was cagey in his response when asked if he will prefer whether AmaZulu win the cup and become the second club from KwaZulu-Natal club, where Ncikazi was born, said since he is at Pirates and is paid by the Mayfair club, he wants to win his for current side.
Ncikazi was the assistant coach to Manqoba Mngqithi when Arrows destroyed Ajax Cape Town 6-0 in the 2009/10 season at Orlando Stadium.
Arrows had defeated Usuthu in the semi-final, with Manqana scoring in the second leg at Chatsworth Stadium to see Abafana Bes’Thende win 2-0 and 4-1 on aggregate.
While on that occasion Arrows denied Usuthu, this time the oldest club in the PSL wasn’t denied, beating Kaizer Chiefs on aggregate score in the semis to reach the final.
Manqana, who then played for Pirates and AmaZulu, backs the latter to be the last team standing.
“AmaZulu can spring a surprise and people will be shocked because everyone is expecting Pirates to win but they might be in for a disappointment,” said Manqana to iDiski Times as he is now the MTN8 ambassador following those exploits 13 years ago.
“Reason being, AmaZulu don’t have that pressure. But you can see their president (Sandile Zungu) wants this competition. It will be nice to see AmaZulu win this cup since they are the neighbors of Arrows.
“It will be nice to see Arrows having won this trophy and also AmaZulu win this trophy, it will beautiful because I played for Arrows and AmaZulu and these are the teams I love so much. Yes, I played for Pirates and I supported growing up, but I wish Usuthu to win it.”
Manqaba was the star of the tournament in 2009 overall, scoring twice in the final game. One goal was the memorable one, the last of them all, fooling Ajax defender, Dennis Ivanovs by snaking the ball past him and then clipping it over the onrushing Hans Vonk in goals.
Manqana, as he was the last scorer of that game which is today the biggest scoreline in the PSL knockout finals era, also started the massacre.
He started the goal glut in the ninth minute, tapping the ball in the empty after Vonk had misjudged a long flight of the ball.
“People even to this day still talk about this game and the last goal,” said Manqana with a smile. “I wish others can make their own mark like I did to be remembered for a long time. The energy we had then, I don’t know where we got it from. But we were training well and we enjoyed the sessions with Manqoba.”
