Carlos Kambaekwa
14 April 2008
Windhoek — African Stars' red hot striker Silver Suriyari scored a rare hat-trick in top flight football when the 10-man Reds downed an out-of-sorts Ramblers outfit in an MTC Namibia Premiership 4-goal thriller at the Khomasdal Stadium in Windhoek on Friday evening.
The former Caps United, Eiffel Flats and Masvingo United goal-poacher showed great composure and finishing instincts never easily seen in the domestic football setup when he sneaked behind a hesitant Ramblers' rearguard for his first goal of the match in the 10th minute, which sent the hundreds of Stars' supporters into raptures.
The visitors created a significant number of gilt edge chances with veteran Sierra Leone's striker John Samson at the heart of many attacks but finding Stars' captain Andrew "the Rock of Gibraltar" Tjahikika, in an uncompromising mood.
Samson came close with a close range glancing header when the speedy forward out-jumped his marker to connect masterfully with Nelson "Dicky" Akwenye's telling cross but the ball flew harmlessly over the crossbar. Ramblers' fast galloping left winger Jeremiah "Bullfrog" Baisako wasted an inviting chance to put the teams level but shot tamely at Stars' stand-in goal keeper Escerol "Packy" Kongoro, and from the resultant clearance, Suriyari grabbed his second goal of the night with a sizzling shot that cannoned off the upright after taking a deflection from a defender in the 14th minute.
Action swung from end to end and Getzen Ndjiharine proved a thorn in the flesh of a static Ramblers defence with the stocky overlapping winger delivering dangerous crosses into the visitors' danger zone. Ramblers kept on piling up the pressure and launched several attacks and during one of their forays striker Bradley "Aspirilla" Wermann left his marker for dead and rounded off Kongoro's pass but instead of walking the ball into an empty net - the skillful striker dilly-dallied with his shot and allowed the Reds' defence to regroup.
By the time he picked his spot, the ball was easily blocked on the goal line by a defender and when the rebound fell neatly on his feet the linesman strangely raised his flag for offside - much to the amazement of the Ramblers bench. The Reds' highly talented but often temperamental midfielder Jasmin "Njinja" Karongee, saw red after a second bookable offence through a dangerous tackle on Ramblers' Congolese midfielder Bernadine Mbilizi on the halfway line in the first half - leaving Stars to battle it out with 10 men for the remainder of the match. It was Karongee's second red card this season.
As the first half wore on, Stars almost grabbed a third when Heinrich "Gazza" Kazeurua found space behind the Ramblers defence and let fly with a rasping grounder with goal written all over it - but Lucas Hashiti in Ramblers did well to block his goal-bound shot. The visitors pushed more bodies into the attack after the break in search of some face-saving goals with captain Fantastic Michael "Dolam Tower" Pienaar converting into a roaming striker - leaving huge gaps in a fragile defence with the clearly overweight Donnelly Nel battling to keep up with the pace of the rampant Suriyari and company.
The 32-year old Zimbabwean latched onto a through ball and rattled the net with a ferocious shot from inside the penalty box to complete his hat-trick in the 63rd minute and all but sealed the result. Ramblers pulled a consolation goal back in the 80th minute through Gerry Keister and kept pushing forward but that oak door of Stars' defence marshaled by Tjahikika refused to yield.
The victory lifted Stars into 6th place, whilst Ramblers remained on top of the summit on 28 points but their slender lead has been cut down to a single point after closest rivals SKW's midweek draw against Tigers. The match was preceded by a moment of silence in honour of the late Petrus Mazenge, a no-nonsense defender with African Stars in his heyday. The 71-year old Mazenge lost his battle against a long illness and finally succumbed to his illness on the 5th of this month. He was buried in his home town Outjo last Saturday.
Kick-off to the otherwise electrifying match was delayed by almost 45 minutes because of the hosts' failure to have the nets on the goalposts adjusted properly, in line with international standards and as a result, tiny ball boys hardly out of their nappies had to be roped in to rectify the situation - a task which proved way beyond their league.
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