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My Welcome to the League Moment: Edward Motale

In our exciting feature My Welcome to the League Moment, KickOff catches up with former Jomo Cosmos full-back Edward "Magents" Motale.

Motale says his real test in professional football came in the fascinating 1991 BP Top 8 Final against a star-studded Kaizer Chiefs.

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On the day Amakhosi line-up had the likes of Absalom "Scara" Thindwa, Donald "Ace" Khuse, Doctor "16V" Khumalo, Fani "Didiza" Madida and the legendary Shane McGregor.

Cosmos had the likes of Motale, Sizwe Motaung and hat-trick hero Phil "Chippa" Masinga.

One of the great finals in South African football history.

"Mine came in the 1991 BP Top 8 Cup Final," Motale tells KickOff.

"That was the most difficult game of my football career.

"On that day I was playing for Jomo Cosmos, and I was facing Scara Thindwa.

"It was awkward. And he came on as a sub, I think the score was still 2-2 when he was introduced.

"We lost that game 4-3, Chippa Masinga scored three goals for us that day.

"We just couldn't deal with Scara Thindwa's pace. He was too quick for us. We couldn't catch him. He was very quick off the ball. 

"As a striker, Scara was all over the show that day. His pace hurt us a lot.

"If I remember very well, he created one goal and scored one.

"I even reprimanded him, I said to him, hey man you are running too much, please slow down.

"He just looked at me and said nothing. That time coaches are shouting at you, hey man, stop that man.

"Our coach at the time was Roy Matthews. He didn't like shouting or talking too much though.

"But after the game, my teammates were on my case asking, hey man why are you allowing this guy to walk all over you, you could have done this and that. 

"The funny part is none of them was able to stop him.

"But that was the best game ever I must say. People enjoyed that cup final.

"There is not much I could say I learned from it though that helped me going forward because I am not a pacey person, I always struggled when facing pacey strikers like Fani Madida.

"The only thing I could say that game taught me was to be always the first man on the ball when coming up against such players. You need to be close to them to avoid running."

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