Football can be a funny old game at times…
One where hard work and sacrifice doesn’t immediately guarantee success but requires patience, and lots of it.
Take coach Ahmed Parker’s UCT Ladies team for instance.
Last year they were in the running for a maiden Sasol League title and cup double, only to miss out on the league following a 1-1 draw away to Santos which shattered their dreams and expectations.
However, all was not lost for the students last season as they retained their Coke Cup title they initially won in 2019, with great aplomb – a second Coke Cup title in three years.
This season, the script was flipped so to speak, not solely by their design, but rather by the way of the soccer Gods.
The Ikey Warriors, as UCT Ladies are called, were recently knocked out of the Coke Cup at the quarter-final in their quest for a third title in this lucrative cup competition.
But by then they had already secured their elusive Sasol Women’s League title and they did it the hard way – and in style. After going down 0-1 to Dangerous Heroes, UCT showed their mettle and class in front of their home crowd to rally back to 2-1, ultimately winning their first league title.
To sweeten the prospects, Parker and his troops will now strive for promotion to the Hollywoodbets Professional Women’s League, which takes place from 16 to 22 October in Bloemfontein.
And given the advantage of hindsight, Parker stated there could not have been any other way.
“The whole idea of last season was to prepare us better for this season, you know,” Parker emphasized. “If I can be honest and from my perspective, the loss in the Cup meant we had to do some introspection as it showed the vulnerabilities in the team and what we need to improve on going into the playoffs.
“It is easy to coach when the team is doing well, but when the cracks start to show, the characters and personalities come out like the loss in the (Coke) quarters. I think we needed that ahead of the playoffs to be able to help us go into the playoffs better prepared because you don’t learn as much in victory as you do in failure.
“So, as much as the Cup defeat hurt and stung us to not be able to defend our (Coke) title, the best thing it did was to give us time to do introspection and to look at ourselves and ask, ‘how we can do better going into the playoffs’,” he added.
This has surely been a long and arduous road for Parker and his charges dating back to 2016. Their gradual growth during the previous five seasons – (with Parker the then assistant to Kamal Sait) – ending a fifth, fourth, third, second and now ultimately winning the title and qualifying for the Hollywoodbets-playoffs.
The UCT coach – aided by his assistant Shaquille Williams and Mark Kapman (goalie coach) – admitted it will be a shot in the dark as they are now entering uncharted territory.
“We don’t know what to expect and will obviously prepare as best as we can,” said Parker. “We are hopeful that we can represent the province with pride. Also, it’s unknown for pretty much all of us. So, we can just give it our best shot and hopefully don’t come back to the Sasol (league),” Parker concluded.
