Zimbabwean Arubi stars as TTM stun Sundowns to reach final Johannesburg (AFP) – Former Zimbabwe goalkeeper Washington Arubi starred as TTM stunned Mamelodi Sundowns on Sunday by winning a penalty shootout to reach the South African FA Cup final.
The clash between the league leaders and relegation candidates ended 0-0 after extra time in Pretoria and the rank outsiders won 6-5 on spot kicks.
TTM are third from bottom in the Premiership and will face the club immediately beneath them, Chippa United, in a May 8 final no one expected.
Chippa edged second-tier Pretoria Callies 1-0 on Saturday in the other semi-final through an opportunist Sandile Mthethwa goal.
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Apr 18, 2021 - 07:00 pm By Staff Reporter
Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi said Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila goalkeeper Washington Arubi is one of the best goalkeepers in the country after the Vhadau Vha Damani goalkeeper produced heroics to send the holders crashing out of the cup on penalties.
Arubi was the only thing standing in the way of Sundowns and a goal throughout the 120 minutes and then when the match did go to penalties, he brilliantly saved Hlompho Kekana s firmly-struck spot-kick towards the top right-hand corner.
And Mngqithi was full of praise for the Zimbabwean shot-stopper and was surprised he had to go down a division to get a team in recent years.
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There’s also the concern of a player’s market value dropping, of him being in a weaker position in terms of salary demands at his next club when his stats don’t look good in terms of minutes played.
It certainly takes character to survive at a team like Sundowns – when a player is not playing regularly, confidence can quickly drop and self doubt can creep in. From there it can be even harder to get back into the team and there are a lot of examples of top players who signed for Sundowns but then failed to make much of an impact with the Pretoria club.