Eswatini’s CAF Confederation Cup representatives, Green Mamba FC, will have played five games in four days after Sunday afternoon’s 8Bet Trade Fair Cup tie, with some of their players completing 180 minutes of football in a single day.
The Correctional Services outfit faced Angola’s Primeiro de Agosto in a CAF interclub fixture at Somhlolo Stadium at 3pm on Saturday. Exactly three hours after their 2-0 defeat, they returned to the pitch for an 8Bet Trade Fair Cup semi-final at Mavuso Sports Centre.
That extraordinary double-header followed two domestic cup assignments in as many days. The Correctional Services side played in the 8Bet round of 16 on Thursday before returning for their quarter-final on Friday. Sunday’s third-place playoff takes their tally to five competitive matches in four days.
The club believes the demanding programme pushed its players beyond reasonable physical limits, particularly with continental football also on their schedule.
“Four games in three days. Two of those games were played on the same day, just a few hours apart, and another one today. That’s five competitive matches in four days. That has been the reality for Green Mamba Football Club. At this point, we might as well get in touch with Guinness World Records and ask them to put our name down for doing what many would have thought was impossible,” Green Mamba said in a strongly worded statement.
GREEN MAMBA PLAYERS PUSHED TO THE LIMIT
In Saturday’s 8Bet meeting, they kept their opponents at bay in regulation time before losing the semi-final on penalties. The club, based at the Matsapha Correctional College, praised the players for giving everything despite being placed under extraordinary strain.
“Some of our players ended up playing 180 minutes of football in a single day. Just think about that for a moment. The longest a football match can normally go is 120 minutes, yet these boys pushed themselves far beyond what the body is meant to handle.
“There is honestly nothing more you could have asked from this group. They gave us everything they had. Sometimes, football isn’t about the result. Sometimes, it’s about looking at your players and knowing they left absolutely everything on that pitch.
“At the end of the day, the human body can only take so much,” reads the statement.
An Eswatini journalist told FARPost that the Trade Fair Cup matches could reportedly not be moved because the competition forms part of an event scheduled to run for 10 days.
“Look at what’s happening in our country. Green Mamba played a CAF game yesterday at 3pm, and five hours later, they played the semi-finals of the 8Bet Trade Fair game at 8pm.
“They also played the last-16 game on Thursday and the quarter-finals on Friday. They say the 8Bet can’t be postponed because it should be a 10-day event. On Sunday, they play the third-place playoff,” the journo said.
After Sunday’s clash, they prepare for a trip to Angola, where they play the reverse fixture on Saturday against Agosto. They will be hoping to keep their Champions League hopes alive away from home.
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