Cape Town City’s Ulderink hails resolve after back-to-back wins

Cape Town City coach Andries Ulderink has praised his side’s determination after they secured two victories in four days to strengthen their promotion push in the Motsepe Foundation Championship.

City followed a 3-1 home win over the Bees at Athlone Stadium on Tuesday with a 3-2 victory against Gomora United at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium on Friday.

Rai Vloet scored twice for the visitors, while Gabriel Amato, 20, settled the match with an 85th-minute winner. Tiklas Thutlwa scored both of Gomora’s goals, taking his tally for the season to eight.

“The determination of this team is amazing. It’s always difficult playing away games, especially with the heat. It’s never easy to play and win on a Tuesday and go away on Friday and win again,” Ulderink said.

The Dutchman replaced Jan Vreman before the start of the season and acknowledged that City had to withstand difficult periods during their latest victory.

“I think we started the game very well. We were defending really good in the first 25 minutes and we were also good on the ball, creating chances but after that Gomora were better than us for 20 minutes… playing better football,” Ulderink said.

City scored twice during that spell despite being under pressure, although Ulderink admitted they had benefited from some fortune.

“Luckily we still managed to score two goals during that moment where we were being dominated just before halftime, and that was good for us because I think we didn’t deserve the second goal, and then we conceded straight after halftime,” he said.

The visitors were then forced to defend for much of the opening 10 to 12 minutes after the interval before gradually regaining control. Gomora’s penalty made it 2-2, but City responded strongly and continued to attack until Amato’s late strike.

“And it was a difficult 10, 12 minutes after halftime, but after that we started controlling the game but couldn’t convert our chances until they got a penalty that made it 2-2. I am very happy about how the team responded to their second goal, throwing everything at them until we scored that great goal to win it 3-2.”

City have not lost since their 2-1 defeat by Real Native in the season opener in August. After seven rounds of fixtures, they are third in the MFC table, three points behind leaders Magesi.

Motsepe Foundation Championship results

Hope 1-1 Midlands; Highbury 1-2 Lerumo; Gomora 2-3 CPT City; Venda 1-3 Magesi; Upington 2-0 Orbit; Bees 0-1 Native; AmaTuks 0-2 Lions; Leicesterford 0-1 NWU