Having produced one of the country's top talents and arguably the most in-form player in the DStv Premiership at present, football coach and talent identification scout Pogiso Mokhoye is encouraged to do more for South Africa.
Leading Orbit TVET College FC as their coach, which is the same third tier outfit which produced Saleng, Mokhoye guided his boys to the final of this year's edition of the Pirates U21 Cup where they lost to former Kaizer Chiefs coach Farouk Khan's Stars of Africa Football Academy in a tightly contested match.
Stars of Africa won 5-4 on penalties after the match ended 0-0 at full-time.
On their way to the final, Orbit won 9-0 in their opening fixture against Highlands City, and was one of the highest scoring teams throughout.
The team's Siyabulela Mabele was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament and he and other hopefuls are waiting to see if they will be selected as part of the Pirates Project X initiative where players get grouped into a team to tour the world for matches against some of the best teams in Europe.
The Good
"We started entering the Pirates U21 Cup last year, and again this year we participated and most of my players that I took there are registered as U23 players in our team that is campaigning in the ABC Motsepe League. In the group stages, we won the first game 9-0 and we won the second game 3-0. In the third game, we won 4-0, which means we scored 16 goals in three games during the first day. In the knockout stages, we won the first game 4-1 against the School of Excellence. The second game, which was in the quarter-finals, we drew 2-2 and won on penalties. In the semi-finals, we won 3-2 to set up the final with Stars of Africa. We played a 0-0 draw and lost on penalties," said Mokhoye.
The Bad
"Because of the challenges we face at this level due to lack of funding and other factors, we travelled on the day of the start of the tournament and that meant we had to leave at 2 o'clock in the morning with the boys and the first game was at 8 o'clock in the very same morning. But under the circumstances, the boys did very well playing until the last game of the day at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. We even had one of our boys chosen as the MVP of the tournament at the end of the games. We also have a chance of playing in the national play-offs of the ABC Motspe League," he added.
The Ugly
"Funding is a very big challenge when dealing with football at this level. Had we had some form of financial backing, we would have travelled to the tournament earlier in instead of having to wake the players in the wee hours of the morning and still expect them to play and give their best. The college is supporting us in terms of transport and in certain aspects of running the team and like right now there is a new ground that is being finalised around the campus and is expected to be ready from June. But we wish we can get more sponsorships and maybe also a partnership with a team from overseas things would be much better," he said.
Hope For The Hopeless
"We have players in our team that can be national assets. People will know that Monnapule Saleng was developed at Orbit but there could be more following in his footsteps. We have four players from us that were signed by Pirates last season for their MDC team. And I can tell you now that if for some reason we don't make it in this year's play-offs, there will be more players from us leaving to join clubs in the professional ranks. We appeal to businesses and people who love football who can assist us to please do so. Orbit is a TVET institution and we are not like a university or any institution like that which has a big budget for sports. We are saying come and invest in this project because we are hope for the hopeless. We are the hope for youngsters in the North West who dream of playing professional football. If they can assist us in whatever way, whether it is soccer kits, balls or anything, we would appreciate," concluded Mokhoye.
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