DURBAN City celebrating their Nedbank Cup final victory over TS Galaxy in Polokwane on Saturday.
Image: BackpagePix
Just last season, Durban City were celebrating their promotion into the PSL, and now, they celebrate their victory of the Nedbank Cup and R7 million in prize money.
Brimming with pride, and for the first time this season in a dress shirt, Durban City coach Pitso Dladla said his team had a psychological edge over TS Galaxy during the final of the Nedbank Cup.
Playing on a slippery New Peter Mokaba Stadium pitch, Durban got off to shaky start and conceded first - becoming only the 7th team in history come back and win the Nedbank Cup.
Galaxy got an early goal over Durban but the second half belong to the blue submarines, with Brooklyn Poggenpoel and Kyle Jurgens controlling the tempo in midfield.
At the back, Durban were flawless in the second half as Galaxy's confidence slowly faded away with the shot clock.
Becoming the first coach in KwaZulu-Natal to take the trophy home, Dladla commended his team's dominant performance.
"At half time we were 1-0 down and we spoke. I told them that this is not the game we going to lose. This was ours to win. We just needed to put a little more effort and take the game to them.
"That happened and we had Kaka who is young and energetic. That rubbed off on the players and then we started to take control. Luckily, we put the goal at the right time and then we got the second goal and defended for our lives but we got top defenders," Dladla said.
"Overall, it was just the effort put forward by the players. But I can tell you that we had a psychological advantage. Last season in the NFD we knocked them out of the competition and this season we beat them twice. So that played in our minds that we can't be losing to them now. That is what gave us belief," Dladla added.