17 March 2018 – The South African National Futsal team produced a vintage performance to hammer Reunion Islands 6-0 in their Four Nations Futsal Tournament opening match against Reunion Islands in Mauritius’ city of Quatre Bornes on Friday night.
A brace from Curtis do Santos and another from Demaine Ho Chong laid the ground for a decisive win while Renaldo Donnelly also chipped with a goal and skipper Wiseman Cele completed the rout.
However, it was Reunion who almost opened the scoring as early as the second minute but the woodwork came to the rescue of goalkeeper Muziwakhe Mazibuko, who went on to keep a clean sheet.
South Africa opened the scoring in the 7th minute through Curtis dos Santos who finished after a great exchange of passes that involved the debutant Sabelo Mazibuko who had a blinder and showed great character and composure on the ball.
Reunion looked like they were going to get the equaliser and coach Kasaval Naidoo brought in Dos Santos off the bench to inject some aggression and the bustling forward hit the ground running as he doubled the lead in the 17th minute.
Two minutes later, Dos Santos was at it again threading through the Reunion defence to score his second goal and the referee blew for a strategic break with SA leading 3-0. After the break the forward should have completed his hatrick but he missed as the Islanders tried to scramble possession away.
South African should have gone to the break well ahead but complacency seemed to be creeping and the half time whistle came at the right time for the technical team to reignite the team performance.
In the second half Reunion came back firing and came close to pulling one back but goalkeeper Muzi Mazibuko pulled a brilliant acrobatic save to ensure a clean sheet.
With about six minutes remaining Renaldo Donnelly scored after a great exchange which saw Simphiwe Mgedezi play a peach of pass for the tall forward to fire into the back of the net.
Skipper Wiseman Cele rounded off what was spirited performance with a goal of his after a brilliant no-look pass from the nimble footed Tsepo Liphuko.