Ngele’s seven year record still stands
BONGANI MALUNGA
Mogakolodi Ngele left the local football scene in 2012 but he built a lasting legacy in the prestigious Mascom Top 8 tournament. Ngele is the only player in the competition’s history to have scored six goals in a single edition of the tournament, for the past seven years the record has not been matched or surpassed by any other player.
Ngele recorded his six goal haul in the inaugural Mascom Top 8 competition in 2012 as his goals helped Township Rollers win the knock-out competition. The closest challengers to equalling or surpassing him in the last few years are Jerome Louis, Benson Shilongo and Obonwe Maome.
Namibian striker Louis, was the first player to be within reach of Ngele’s record as he banged in five goals in the 2013/2014 season. Louis scored the equalizing penalty as the game ended 1-1 in regulation time, he was only a goal away from tying the single tournament scoring record but it was not meant to be.
Rollers went on to lose the final in a penalty shoot-out in the 2013/2014 season, the Yellow Boot (top scorer award) proved to be only a consolation prize for Louis. Another player who excelled and looked likely to challenge for the top scorer award in the 2013/2014 edition was BDF XI’s Lesego Lubinda as he scored a hat-trick as the army side thumped Nico United 5-2 in the first leg of their semifinal encounter at the SSKB Stadium. However, Lubinda could not find the consistency he would have liked to increase his goal tally, he ended the competition with only three goals.
In the 2014/2015 season, yet another Namibian striker in the form of Shilongo steered Gaborone United to glory as his goal in the final ensured that Moyagoleele clinched a 2-1 win, just like his countryman the year before, Shilongo scored his fifth goal of the tournament in the final courtesy of a penalty.
Not to be outdone by strikers, Maano Ditshupo bucked the trend of forwards dominating the top scorer honour as he became the first ever midfielder to win the Yellow Boot award, he was the joint top scorer alongside Orapa United’s Ronald Chikomo. In the last two years Kumbee Katjiteo and Tendai Nyumasi (4 goals each in the 2016/2017 edition) and Obonwe Maome (five goals last season) have won the award.
This year’s edition has seen a decrease in terms of multiple players scoring more than one goal at the semifinal stage. The current top scorer is Rollers’ Kamogelo Matsabu who has registered two goals so far in the competition, his two goals came in the quarter-final tie against Black Forest, he is the only player who has scored more than one goal in the competition so far this season. If the slow individual scoring rates are anything to go by it appears Ngele’s long standing record will remain untouched in the competition this season.