Motsepe Foundation Championship — Round 28 | 1 May 2026
Baroka FC came up short on the road on Friday afternoon, falling 2-0 to Casric Stars FC after a goalless first half was undone by a late Tlhalefang Kgabane brace. It is a result that piles further pressure on Bakgaga Ba Mphahlele as the season runs down.
Goalless at the break, undone after it
Baroka had done the hard part for an hour. The teams went into the interval level at 0-0, with Baroka holding their shape on the road against opposition sitting comfortably in the upper half of the table. The wheels came off in a 14-minute window in the second half: Kgabane broke the deadlock in the 67th minute, then doubled the lead in the 81st to put the match beyond reach.
For a side fighting at the wrong end of the table, those are the moments that have to go differently. Hold the line for an hour, then concede twice late — it’s a script Baroka have to find a way to rewrite.
Where this leaves Baroka
The defeat keeps Baroka FC in 16th place in the Motsepe Foundation Championship, deep in the part of the table no club at this level wants to be in heading into the closing rounds. Casric Stars, by contrast, sit 5th — the kind of upper-mid-table side Baroka would have been hoping to take at least a point off on the road.
It is the third meeting between the two clubs this season, and another set of points lost to opposition above them in the standings.
A familiar problem
The story of Baroka’s afternoon was not collapse — it was a quiet inability to convert defensive work into a tangible result. There is no shame in keeping a top-half side scoreless for 66 minutes; there is, however, urgency in the question of how a side this far down the standings turns those 66 minutes into points.
With Round 28 done and dusted, the margin for error is tightening. Every match from here is one Baroka need to treat as decisive.
What’s next
The defeat will sting, but the maths still leaves room for Baroka to climb if they can string results together in the closing fixtures. The priority now is simple: turn defensive resilience into actual points, and stop the late-game lapses that turned a goalless game into a 2-0 loss on Friday.
Final Score: Casric Stars FC 2-0 Baroka FC
Goals: Kgabane 67′, 81′
Half-Time: 0-0
Date: 1 May 2026
Competition: Motsepe Foundation Championship, Round 28
