Siphumelele Primary School from Pinetown wins Danone Nations Cup KZN Provincial Final

Under the watchful eye of ex Bafana Bafana captain and Kaizer Chiefs player, Neil Tovey, Siphumelele Primary School of Inanda won the KwaZulu-Natal provincial title in the under-12 Danone Nations Cup for the second consecutive year when they emerged as the top side out of the 12 district winners who competed at the Princess Magogo Stadium, KwaMashu on March 29.

Mr. Emmanuel Mkhize, the team's manager said Siphumelele went into the provincial finals with every intention of defending their title and, although they had to play against tough schools that also wanted to win, he says they maintained a positive spirit throughout and listened to their coach’s instructions.

"We won because we prepared the boys physically and mentally for tournaments like these," he said. "We started training early and got them used to playing against stronger teams so that when the finals came around they were ready and they have no fear of facing tough teams."

Mkhize cautioned, "We don’t want the boys to be over confident now as the national finals will be a new challenge.  We are competing with the best schools in every province; they fought hard to be where they are just like us, so all the teams that are in the national finals are competitive in their own right. We need to make sure that our boys’ performance levels remain high and that they have the stamina to compete against the other 9 top schools that will be there.  "

Mkhize said the highlight of the provincial finals was beating Ovukaneni Primary 4-0. "That was an achievement for us because that was the highest we have scored in a game this year,” he said. “Their team was challenging but we had that competitive edge and ended up winning that game.”

The goals scored at the provincial finals were shared out among the strikers, but two - Lesedi Hadebe and Lindelani Dlamini scored more than two each. “They really impressed me and I know that they will do much better in the national finals,” Mkhize said.

Neil Tovey was highly impressed with the skills of the youngsters.  “The one striker from Siphumelele was particularly good,” he said.  “That youngster has the skills to become a professional one day.  To achieve this, his coaching in high school will be critical as he needs to be guided to prevent bad habits creeping in.  Of course the best would be for him to join an academy, but there are limited academies in South Africa.”

The entire school is behind the team. “We were fortunate because we had supporters at the stadium. We had about 22 teachers from our school present as well as our principal Mr Phathokuhle Sam Ndaba. I think that having supporters in the stands really builds a team’s spirit on and off the field, so we are looking to having more supporters at the national finals in Gauteng,” said Mkhize.

RESULTS

Zithukise Primary 3 vs Maqumbi Primary 2

Siyephi Primary 0 vs Ithaka Primary 2

Indawana Primary 0 vs Machibini Primary 0 (Indawana won on penalties)

Ndongeni Primary 1 vs Siphumelele Primary        1 (Siphumelele won on penalties)

Maqumbi Primary 1 vs Mthethomusha Primary 0

Ithaka Primary 2 vs Sinaye Primary 0

Machibini Primary 0 vs Watersmeet Primary 0 (Machibini won on penalties)

Siphumelele Primary 4 vs Ovukaneni Primary 0

Mthethomusha Primary 2 vs Zithukise Primary 1

Sinaye Primary 5 vs Siyephi Primary 1

Watersmeet Primary 2 vs Indawana Primary 1

Ovukaneni Primary1 vs Ndongeni Primary 2

Semifinal 1 - Zithukise Primary 0 vs Siphumelele Primary 1

Semifinal 2 - Watersmeet Primary 1 vs Ithaka Primary 0

Final - Siphumelele Primary 1 Watersmeet Primary 1 (Siphumelele won on penalties).

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