Welcome back for the penultimate round of our walk down memory lane, Dukes. So many stories shared. From your end, what has the feedback been like so far?
Ja, most of the guys, like Joel Seroba… well, the only problem with Seroba is that he doesn't have a phone. Most of the people who have given me feedback say they want Jacob Sakala there. They want you to interview him. They say, "No maan, Mr Lunga must bring Jacob Sakala because that man was the one who was motivating players." They like his stories a lot. So, I've enjoyed it and people have enjoyed it as well.
Eish, that man is so slippery it's not even funny now. But we promise all Soccer Laduma readers that we will get him on these pages very soon, as we've had requests from so many of them that we should bring him back.
Ja, you know he's a Jacob, he's doing a lot of things, ha, ha, ha. But people want him because he struggled with us, he's got memories about us and knows where we come from with him. Most of the supporters this side, Limpopo, say, "Hey, we need Sakala maan. We just want to hear from him." You must get him because people need him, it's been long maan.
In the last instalment, we were talking about the late Thabang Lebese and how he always wanted the ball to be passed to him!
Yes. You know, Thabang, Joel Seroba, Frank Makua, Thapelo Liau… all those guys would dribble. Sydney Moshikaro liked to score. When he was in the right position to score, I passed to him so he could score. Same with Thembinkosi Biyela. So, I would tell Thabang, "Don't come for us and want us to give you all the balls, no, no, no." He was like Junaid Hartley, he wanted each and every thing to revolve around him, but then we needed the result. However, what I liked is that once he got the ball, he would do the right things. He would go forward, dribble the defenders and score, and then he would go and fetch the ball from the net. After that, he would say to me, "Dukes, ke u joetsitse (I told you), if you give me the ball, ke tla kora (I'm going to score)." He was just a character. Inside the field, if you didn't give him the ball, jislaaik, he would be furious! I would tell him, "No, no, no, Thabang, I can't pass to you in the middle of the park. After losing the ball, they will score and then the coach will blame me and take me out. I'll rather give Biyela to score." But they had a very good combination… Makua, Thabang and Liau. Those three made us tick, to be honest with you. Ria Stars had ball players. I mean, you had Thabang, Kgasago Banda, Makua, Liau, Seroba. There was a lot of cream in the team. When they said Ria Stars vs Golden Arrows, and I'm talking here about the Golden Arrows of Abafana Bes'thende fame, the likes of Lucky Sibeko, Bheka Phakathi, you would enjoy that game.
Talk to us a bit about your time at Mpumalanga Black Aces, especially playing under Kenny Ndlazi.
When he came to Aces, you know… ha, ha, ha, we were supposed to qualify for the play-offs and then we drew with Tuks. We went to the dressing room and he went first. When Peter Koutroulis and the directors, George and Mario Morfou, came there, he was crying like nobody's business. We as players were still coming. When we came there, Koutroulis was so furious! He called us, sat us down and shouted at us, "Just look now, the old man is crying. You guys don't have passion for football. This coach is working hard." I was having an injury, and then there was another room there where there was the physio. They told me to go that side. I went that side, and then Ndlazi found me there as they were treating me. He liked to wear nice, so he was wearing a suit. He was laughing. When Koutroulis came that side to check on me, Ndlazi started to scream loudly and cry! Ha, ha, ha. When
Koutroulis went out, he kept quiet. Now I wanted to laugh, but I kept it to myself because I know even from Ria Stars, when things didn't go well for him, he had those crocodile tears ready to come out. All the directors would be shocked… even at Rovers. The man is a character. The Greeks were shocked at how the old man was crying and the tears were falling on his cheeks. Man, it was so funny because as soon as Koutroulis opened the door, Ndlazi would just start crying like a baby.
Ha, ha, ha, so funny!
But that season at least he took us to the final of the Nedbank Cup against Mamelodi Sundowns. Unfortunately, they beat us 1-0 in the last five minutes when Lerato Chabangu scored that goal. It was a very emotional game because he had just replaced me in the last 15 minutes and put that guy Emmanuel Emenike – you know him? He ended up playing in Turkey, England. When he came there, he was just a raw player, but luckily he was a raw player, which is why he ended up playing in Europe. That is why you must never predict football. It was nice at Aces. Even when Sammy Troughton came there, ey… he gelled with us until we won the play-offs and went to the PSL. He can turn things around because he told us that, "Guys you're gonna play Nedbank. I know you are still overexcited, but nna I don't want the Nedbank, I want you to go to the PSL." Because of how he was believing in himself, we ended up going to the PSL, you understand? But the sad thing about the teams, when they go to the PSL, the directors start to listen to a lot of people. They released a lot of players, the technical team. That's where things started to fall apart at Aces because they started by releasing Troughton, and after that most of the players followed… Teboho Mokoena, Oscar Ramogoadi, Dukes Machaka. You know, there was no order like when we were playing in the First Division. Everybody was doing the way he wanted.
You actually had a good team there at AmaZayoni.
You can say that again. Godfrey Nobula, we used to call him "West". He came at Ria Stars by the time they were going to sell it. He was brought by the late Styles Phumo. He trained with us during preseason and Styles Phumo was going to sign him, but unfortunately the team was sold. I went with him to City Pillars, together with Sam Pam and Robson Muchichwa. So, ja, we played there. Nobula and Lucas Tlhomelang were coming from Vryburg and had a good combination at the back. They were solid. He was a character in his own right, but inside the field he was so good and always gave his all. Another one we had was Tebogo Monyai. He was from Moroka Swallows when he came to us, and this was after he had broken his leg. Troughton brought him there and he told us that the guy had been playing for Swallows and was coming from a serious injury, and that we must motivate him to come back to football. He came there and marshalled the defence very well. He was a leader and liked to motivate players, that is why he is working there at the Players Union I guess. He was our right back when we won promotion and was a very good communicator on and off the field. It was a very good team that we had and I enjoyed playing with those guys at Aces. Even this boy, Lindokuhle Mbatha. But I'll tell you a funny story about that one next week, ha, ha, ha!
We are so looking forward to it. Since we are doing it for the last time next week, let's make sure you go out with a bang.
Definitely, Lunga, ha, ha, ha!
By Lunga Adam
STILL IN TOUCH FUN FACTS
First paycheque: R2 500
Biggest bonus: R5 000
Opponent I respected the most: Johannes Mine
Team I'd have loved to play for: Kaizer Chiefs
Favourite PSL player right now: Themba Zwane
Best coach I played under: Jacob Sakala
Craziest request from a fan: None, just requests for sports merchandise
