Sport

Tovey sets his sights on Africa

May 20, 2010 Edition 1

The chance of taking AmaZulu to play in the African Confederations Cup is the motivation driving Usuthu head coach Neil Tovey to lift the Nedbank Cup when they face BidVest Wits in the final at Soccer City on Saturday. Kick-off is at 3pm.

The cup final will be the first match to be played at the new multibillion-rand stadium, which will be used for the opening and closing matches in next month's World Cup finals. As the 2010 Local Organising Committee are using the final to test the venue ahead of the World Cup, only 80 000 tickets will be sold. The stadium has a capacity of 94 000.

Said Tovey, a former Bafana captain who helped South Africa to glory in the African Nations Cup at the old Soccer City in 1996: "It is fantastic to be part of all the hype, but it would be even better if AmaZulu should for the first time qualify for the Confederations Cup in 2011."

The winner, as well as qualifying for the Confederations Cup, will go home R6 million richer. The loser will take home R2.5m.

AmaZulu's twin strikers, Dumisani Ngwenya and Ayanda Dlamini, will play a key role, while the Clever Boys got a boost this week with the return to fitness of goal-scoring midfielder Mark Haskins, who had been suffering with a back injury and came off the bench in last week's semi-final against Free State Stars to score two late goals to guide Wits to a 3-1 win.

Wits coach Roger de Sa said AmaZulu should start as slight favourites after beating the big-spending Mamelodi Sundowns in the semi-finals, but Tovey was not buying that. "Form goes out of the window in a cup final.

"But I am quietly confident and believe my boys will rise to the occasion." - Sapa