MOUTH-WATERING LAST 16 DRAW

My dearest readers ... It’s good to be back in the Pandora’s Box after an all-too-brief leave in which I renewed my faith with the man above and vowed to serve Him.

As my main man, Mzolisto sings, “like a Camel’s eyes I see through desert storms. Like its feet I neither burn nor sink. Where many feel tasty I am like a paradise oasis.”
Yesterday at noon, inside the SwaziBank boardroom the tension was so thick it could have been cut even with a blunt knife. There was such an air of silence one could have heard a pin drop. This was just before the SwaziBank Management Committee Chairperson Johannes ‘Ace’ Siboza and his Committee members began conducting the draw.

After a total of 57 goals were scored in the opening last 32 stage over the weekend with all the big guns storming into the last 16 stage, it was expected that the draw would be a nerve-wrecking, tense affair – not for the faint-hearted. Filled to the brim, the boardroom was a beehive of activity as the club PROs all geared up for the salient moment. When the first eight teams were drawn from the pot it became evident there was to be no big Mbabane derby or exhilarating clash pitting two of the country’s big guns.

But when National First Division long leaders, Matsapha United, whose arrival has no doubt shaken the football landscape from its very foundation, were paired against the ‘Van Damme’ of local football in the unbeatable Mbabane Swallows, the tension reached epic proportions.
Fresh from flummoxing listless Ludzeludze Brothers 11-3 on Saturday, the ‘Deep Blue Ocean’ as Matsapha United are affectionately known only too well, have a mountain to climb in ending Swallows’ unbeaten run of 28 games in all competitions.

There were murmurs when Manzini Wanderers, who showed a lot of frailties despite beating 19 Celtics, the Hhohho Super league outfit, 3-1 on Sunday were drawn against Green Mamba. Certainly, a humdinger of a clash is on the offing.
Below I run my rule on the eight enthralling fixtures that will make the 14th edition of the SwaziBank Cup even more exciting and unpredictable in equal measure.

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