When Tlou Segolela accelerated like a speeding steam train past the Esperance defence during the early stages of their nail-biting Caf Champions League semi-final, it looked like Bucs' opening goal was on the cards.
Esperance' defence was caught flat-footed and he was one-on-one with the keeper. Additionally, he had a fairly simple square pass for Lennox Bacela to tap home.
In the next five seconds or so, I learnt what it feels like to suffer in frustration with Segolela, as he badly underhit his pass and the chance was gone. His talent at getting into dangerous positions is brilliant, his final ball so often is not.
He neither had a strike on target nor found a decisive pass. It seemed to me that, for the umpteenth time in his career, he got himself into a brilliant position, only to fluff his final ball.
Such was my exasperation with the miss, because an early goal for Bucs would've been gold. At the time, I tweeted, "Sox has got to do better there. He had time and space. Oh man, what a chance!"
It also prompted prominent player agent, Mike Makaab, to tweet, "If Tlou's final ball and finishing was improved, he could play at a high level in Europe and this game would be over."
How true that statement is! Tlou is your quintessential game-changer. He's constantly at the sharp end of things when it comes to making things happen around the final third. The gun-slinger who never stops fancying his chances, even when the chips are down.
The excitement he creates when he explodes past a defender and does something brilliant can be immense. However, when he does all the hard work and then sends a cross into orbit or fluffs a golden opportunity in front of goal, the frustration is equally so.
Despite the groans of utter frustration he causes fans to utter at times, Tlou Mashedi Segolela never hides away. He keeps gunning forward. He keeps getting that ball in advanced areas. He never stops going for the throat and that's why I like him as a player.
He could give that ball away six times in a row in a one-on-one situation with a defender, he'll still believe on the seventh time he'll get past him and score a goal. And, chances are that he will!
Tlou is genuinely not too different from say, an Angel Di Maria of Real Madrid in terms of his direct and 'up and at them' wing play. It's just that there are tiny margins in football that seperate a world class performer from a very good one. If Sox had spent his youth career at Madrid's famed La Fabrica youth academy, I could be saying something else here.
Nonetheless, I still believe in Segolela and I hope he starts against Al-Ahly in the Caf Champions League final. Give me a winger whose going to go for the kill from the first minute to the last and I'd say you're on to a winner.
Even if it takes him 25 mistakes, 15 ballooned crosses and eight scuffed shots - he won't stop until a goal is made or scored. So, I'll put up with my frustrations when he does a brilliant thing and then makes a mistake soon afterwards because I know he's going to do something truly special and make us all proud one day.
For this journalist that day could come on November 2, against Al-Ahly. I have a feeling he's going to make all the difference.
Go Sox go! Let's destroy these Egyptians, my brother!
Give it to me, I'm in space!
David Minchella
Soccer-Laduma journalist
Follow me on Twitter: @DavidLaduma
