AmaZulu FC head coach Pablo Franco Martin has leaped to goalkeeper Veli Mothwa’s defense following his costly howler in their 2024/25 Betway Premiership opener in Polokwane this past weekend.
Usuthu lost 2-1 to Polokwane City at the old Peter Mokaba Stadium when the tie looked to be heading for a stalemate. In the dying minutes of the game, Rise and Shine went on attack which saw the ball slip through Mothwa’s hands and found the foot of Thabang Matuludi who scored the winner for the Limpopo side.
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Mothwa’s latest setback comes barely a week after conceding two long range goals in Bafana Bafana’s AFCON 2025 Qualifier with Uganda that ended 2-2.
Martin said it’s easy to nail Mothwa for his mistakes while other players like strikers also missed chances. The Spaniard added that his job now is to try and get the keeper back to his best as soon as possible.
“Everybody saw what happened in the last goal and it’s clear that it’s a mistake,” Franco told reporters after the game.
“But we also made mistakes with our attacking players and in the end it’s the same value when you are conceding a goal and when you are not scoring a goal. Today we had four, five clear chances open to score goals, we hit the posts and nobody is talking about the offensive players.
“Sometimes I think you guys are a bit unfair but I understand that sells more newspapers or people click more on your social media when you are posting about these things. It’s a pity.
“We need to recover him because he’s our main goalkeeper. He is the only player since I came here that’s with Bafana Bafana and that’s because of something. Now we have to see if he can get back to his best as soon as possible.
“He had a good game until that moment. The way he conceded he could do nothing from the situation. He was managing well, communicating well with the defense when he needed to leave the box to defend the through balls from the runs of the strikers, he was accurate.
“So nothing to say about the whole goals, it’s true that was an unlucky situation at the end and it’s costing us one point.”
