The Nedbank Cup has long been a competition for players to turn around their fortunes and rebuild confidence and fan faith, and there were two fresh examples of that in the Last 16 matches this past weekend.
Tshegofatso Mabasa scored a classy brace for Orlando Pirates as they swept past second-tier Hungry Lions 4-0 to take his tally in this year’s competition to three in two games and join Mamelodi Sundowns’ Gaston Sirino and SuperSport United teenager Shandre Campbell at the top of the scorers charts.
The second was Thembinkosi Lorch, who twice unlocked a stubborn Maritzburg United defence to help Sundowns into the last-8 following his move from Pirates.
Mabasa had been out of favour at The Buccaneers and spent the first half of the season at Moroka Swallows, where he impressed with six goals. But the well-publicised off-field issues at The Birds meant he returned to Pirates in January.
But with competition for places and perhaps needing to win back the trust of coach Jose Riveiro, he faced an uncertain future before his three Nedbank Cup goals have underlined his form and quality.
"What I can tell you is that what we are looking for in that position, he fits well," Riveiro said. "He is a striker that can help us play better. We all know what Tshego can do in the box, his quality, his timing in the air. He is very complete, as close to the box as possible.
"But he is also improving in his playing far from the box. He's also giving us a lot of things, improving. We don’t see a No 9 as only a player just to finalise the action in the box and that’s it.
“It’s a player that needs to help us out to play better, to play the football we want to play. To be in contact with the ball, to dominate the central lane on the field, to create the spaces from our three number 10s.
"All of them (the Pirates strikers), when they are on the field, they have a difficult job to do and Tshego so far is doing well. Good for him and good for the team and so far he is finding the net, which is also very important for a No 9."
Lorch admitted that he had received some stern words from Sundowns coach Rhulani Mokwena in the week before the Nedbank Cup game against Maritzburg following a lack of goals since his arrival from Pirates.
He had netted once in seven games – a CAF Champions League tie away at Nouadhibou in Mauritania – and in a side that creates as many chance as The Brazilians, better was expected.
But he delivered in the Nedbank Cup and took his tally in the competition to nine goals, placing him among the all-time leading scorers in the competition since 2008, though still five behind teammate Peter Shalulile at the head of the list.
“The coach was hard on me during the week for me not scoring the goals, I’m getting the balls but I’m not shooting enough and he was hard on me. I’m happy today, I managed to score two goals,” Lorch said.
Both Mabasa and Lorch are proven goalscorers in the South African topflight and while they might have had some difficult moments of late, they are letting their goals do the talking.