UCT star striker Tara Haoust’s spectacular hat-trick in the semi-finals against Santos Ladies FC and her opening goal in this year’s Coca-Cola Amateur Cup final against Heideveld Female Football Academy (HFFA), at Athlone Stadium, at the weekend, helped her side to a 2-1 victory to be crowned 2022 champions.
Teammate Thambolinye Mzoneli’s strike in the second half, following Kim Mentoor’s equaliser for HFFA, helped to sealed the deal for UCT.
Haoust’s opener and an all-round impressive performance earned her the player-of-the match award.
Played in front of a bumper crowd, the colour red, as worn by the HFFA supporters, was the predominant tint up in the stands, but ultimately, it was the blue team, UCT, that walked away as champions.
Haoust, 18, the youngest of five siblings, was also the big winner at the club’s awards evening at Hartleyvale, earlier this week, walking off with a bucket full of silverware after being voted the players’ player-of-the-year, player-of-the-year, top goalscorer-of-the-year and attacker-of-the-year.
A goal poacher of note, this pocket rocket joined UCT at the beginning of the year and started kicking ball at the age of 10. She started playing competitively from the age of 12, picking up an interest in the game thanks to older brother Kyle, who was heavily into English football.
Her instincts in front of goal has the makings of an experienced marksman, accurate and deadly, and she really came into her own during the latter stages of this year’s Coke Cup campaign, says coach Ahmed Parker, who has been with the side since 2016.
“Our main priority for the year was to gain promotion to the National Women’s League. We really had our hearts and minds set on that. Missing out by one point was heartbreaking, and thus made our journey to the final of this competition even more important to us. Now we’re grateful to have ended the season with some silverware,” he said.
Haoust agrees, saying that missing out on winning the league motivated the squad even more. “We were determined to walk away with at least one trophy, and we did,” she said.
“The opening two rounds of the Coke Cup were pretty simple I’d say, we did what we needed and got the job done. After that, the competition became very competitive very quickly, said Haoust, who missed out on the quarter-finals due to a knee injury.
A hat-trick and cup final goal later, the rest as they say, is history. By all accounts, the name Haoust could become a household name. Look out for it.
