Supersport United grabbed three important points at home against the Lamontville Golden Arrows FC, as they look to finish second in the South-African Premier League behind the Mamelodi Sundowns. Supersport lined up in a 4-2-4 against the Arrows’ 4-3-3 and were happy to sit back and give possession to their opponents. After their second goal at the start of the second half, Supersport seemed to take their foot of the gas slightly. The Golden Arrows did get one goal back, through a penalty, but it wasn’t enough to get any points.
Ratings:
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be a strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, rewatch
- D – Below average in this match
Neo Rapoo
Player Profile:
- Nationality: South-African
- Age: 17
- Date of birth: 12/08/2006
- Club: Supersport United FC
- Career: Supersport United FC
- Position: Left Back
- Preferred foot: Left
The 17-year-old Neo Rapoo came in for just his second start in the league for Supersport United, as Supersport’s captain Onismor Bhasera wasn’t available, slotting in at left back. Rapoo had a solid first half and certainly impressed me. Sadly I didn’t see a lot of him in the second half, which was also caused by the Golden Arrows just refusing to attack from the right wing for some reason.
Rapoo is quite a small full back, as I would estimate him between 1.70m and 1.75m, but he doesn’t shy away from the physical side of the game. He still has quite a lean build and will have to gain some mass in the future, but his intensity in duels was on par. Rapoo seemed to be pretty fast, good on the first meters and over longer distances. The youngster also looked very agile, quickly able to turn and change direction.
Supersport United FC didn’t really want to try and build up from the back and could’ve been a bit more patient at times. The two centre backs only played two passes to each other throughout this whole match, which you don’t see often. Because of this Rapoo didn’t get the ball super often, but there were still enough moments for him to show his qualities. For his age, Rapoo played incredibly mature on the ball. He looked solid technically and seemed to stay very calm when he was being pressed. You would often just see him turning with the ball and finding a forward pass. The 17-year-old liked to get forward, but we didn’t see too many overlapping runs on the left, which looked like it was an instruction from the coach, as we didn’t see from the right back either.
He also seems to have a fantastic left foot. I don’t think we saw it’s full potential against the Golden Arrows, as some of his crosses were a bit inconsistent, but he played a couple of lovely switches to the right. Also the fact that he took the indirect free kicks and corners says something about his passing/crossing ability.
Rating – A2
I certainly think that Rapoo has the potential to play at a higher level in the future. However, I need to see some more from him to properly judge him, mainly his defensive qualities.
Thapelo Maseko
Player Profile:
- Nationality: South-African
- Age: 20
- Date of birth: 11/11/2002
- Club: Supersport United FC
- Career: Supersport United FC
- Position: Left Winger
- Preferred foot: Right Winger
Thapelo Maseko has been one of Supersport United’s bright lights this season, after joining their first team at the end of last season. Recently he received an invitation for the South African U23 squad, who are playing in the AFCON U23 qualifiers. The 20-year-old has been playing on both wings so far this season and played on the right against the Golden Arrows.
On paper Supersport United played a 4-4-2 formation, but it really was more of a 4-2-4 with Maseko as a right winger. Now let’s just start at Maseko’s biggest weapon, which is undoubtedly his pace. Maseko is absolutely rapid with the ball at his feet and was easily able to just run around his defender with a heavy touch. A prime example of this came in the 30th minute when he blasted past his defender and put in a good low cross with his right foot, which was finished by striker Lepasa.
This was a great move by Maseko, but sadly we didn’t see nearly enough of these. Where his dribbling seemed to be quite decent, he often made the wrong decisions on the ball, going into crowded spaces or keeping it slightly too long. Also besides his assist, he seemed to use his right foot as little as possible. He received the ball with it at times, but almost exclusively dribbled with his left foot, making him quite predictable.
Maseko stands around 1.78m, if I had to estimate him, with a lean build. But with his quick bursts of pace paired with great agility and balance, he was very hard to push off the ball. He was also a very hard worked off the ball, doing a lot of pressing. This wasn’t that effective though, as Supersport didn’t press well as a team but sort of went 1 by 1.
Rating – A2
This rating is quite hard, as I’m really between A2 and B1, since Maseko was quite one-dimensional. However, he is the type of player that can change the game with just one move. He has quite some areas to improve, but he is still only 20 years old. A move to one of the Scandinavian leagues could work out well for him.
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