Njabulo Blom sent thousands of St. Louis City supporters into a frenzy when he netted his first goal in the MLS when they defeated Bongokuhle Hlongwane‘s Minnesota United 2-1 away from home.
The Bafana Bafana international struck from outside the box to score a cracker to hand his side a win in the 73rd minute of the showpiece.
Interestingly, this was Blom’s first professional goal of his career. To put a cherry on top, the ex-Kaizer Chiefs man is the 17th player this season to record a goal for St. Louis across all competitions.
Bradley Carnell’s side came from a goal down to salvage a win against Hlongwane’s side. Minnesota broke the deadlock in the 46th-minute courtesy of Teemu Pukki from a penalty kick.
Unfortunately, Minnesota’s joy was short-lived as João Klauss leveled matters with a cross from Jake Nerwinski before Blom scored the winner in the 73rd minute.
In fact, this was St Louis’ sixth away win of the campaign. Following Blom’s stellar display on the day, he was voted as the Man of the Match.
NJABULO BLOM’S GOAL RESPONSE TO BAFANA COACH?
Blom was not selected in Hugo Broos’ final 23-man squad that faced Namibia and the DR Congo a fortnight ago.
When the Belgian mentor was asked why he excluded Blom from his final squad, the 71-year-old coach stated that the midfielder was in and out of the St. Louis squad and missed a lot of games.
Surprisingly, Blom has been named in the recent Broos’ 36-man preliminary squad. Bafana are set to play international friendly matches against Eswatini and Côte d’Ivoire next month.
Now, South Africans await to see if the former Chiefs academy product will make it to the final 23-man squad.
FANS REACTION
One fan tweeted: “A reminder that Blom started his playing career in South Africa as a forward!
The other said: “Lmao something is definitely wrong with Chiefs, these guys look much better after leaving us.
Another one added:” Get ready for a South Africa invasion!! They love the stopper!”
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