The much-anticipated Mpumalanga Premiers International Cup finally got underway, which saw German Bundesliga side FC Augsburg beat Young Africans of Tanzania 2-1 at the Mbombela Stadium on Saturday.
Augsburg and Yanga set the tone for what is expected to be an exciting and action-packed week of international football.
Both coaches named relatively strong starting line-ups, with the Beninese striker Steve Mounie leading the attack for Augsburg alongside fellow new signee Samuel Essende. The flamboyant and most talked about skillful midfielder Aziz Ki was also on the pitch for Yanga.
The German outfit started the game on a front foot, with Yanga’s Djigui Diarra being the busiest of the two goalkeepers by making three important saves in the opening stages of the game.
However, in the 37th minute, Augsburg finally broke the deadlock through Mads Pedersen when he fired a shot on the edge of the box that slipped through the hands of Diarra.
At the stroke of half-time, Yanga almost got the equalizing goal, but Mudathiri Yahya struck the post from a long-range effort and went into the break trailing 1-0.
The second half saw both teams rotate their squads to give the rest of some team minutes.
In the 82nd minute, Augsburg’s Phillip Tietz scored the second goal of the game when he tapped in the ball into the far post from a Masaya Okugawa assist.
Yanga did pull one goal back in the dying stages of the game through Jean Baleke, but it was not enough as Augsburg walked away with a 2-1 victory.
Despite the low supporter turnout, Mbombela Stadium was buzzing with the few fans who were through sang and beat their drums to cheer the players.
In the late kick-off, Galaxy will lock horns with Swallows at 8pm with the last match of the competition set to take place between the Rockets and Augsburg next week Saturday.
