In a month’s time Siphumelele
Primary School, from Inanda, Pinetown, KZN, will be playing their final Danone
Nations Cup World Final football match in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Groupe
Danone held a draw in Brazil this week which put South Africa in Group D with
Mexico, Belgium and Indonesia.
The team won the right to travel
to Brazil for this once in a lifetime experience by winning the Danone Nations
Cup South Africa title and, according to their coach, Siboniso Ndwandwe,
preparations are going well.
“After a short holiday the boys
are now back at school and it is back to training,” said Ndwandwe. “The South
African Schools Football Association has assigned us a qualified coach, Mr
Yengwa, who comes twice a week and Neil Tovey (ex Bafana Bafana captain and
Kaizer Chiefs player now tournament ambassador) will be visiting our school
next week to give us a coaching session. I have seen the draw and believe
it is in our favour and we have a good chance of progressing to the next
round.”
The school has also been given
the use of a pitch to train on at nearby Nhlanhla Secondary School, which is in
much better condition than their own community field, and they are getting
assistance from sponsors Danone, who gave the school over 40 000 cups of
Ultramel yoghurt as well as 30 boxes of Muesli.
“We were overwhelmed with all the
product that Danone has given us. Not only is it being used to help the
team build stamina, strength and bone density in preparation for Brazil, but it
is also feeding the entire school of over 1 000 pupils. Being in a rural
community most of the children’s parents do not work and they rely on government
grants and only eat one small meal a day.”
The KZN Department of Education
will be hosting a send-off breakfast next Wednesday, which will be attended be
the local government officials, the school’s Governing Body as well as the
teachers and team. “They will be wishing us well and motivating us before we
leave,” Ndwandwe said.
At this stage, it’s all about
concentrating on the basics in training, the coach said. “We want to keep it
simple and not over-complicate things for the players, so we are concentrating
on the basic skills: defending attacking, ball possession and building up
stamina,” he said.
“The boys have been consistent in
their improvement and are mastering the basics. I can safely say that each
player has improved tremendously on their performance at the nationals. They
are also more disciplined.”
The excitement is building at the
school and in the community ahead of the departure date. “Not a day goes by
without the boys talking about going to Brazil and we have to try to keep them
calm and focused on school work as they also need to do well in their final
exams,” Ndwandwe said.
The coach is impressed with the
team’s commitment and discipline. “It would be great to come back with the
trophy, but I know that the competition will be tough and I tell the boys that
it is all about having fun and they must make the most of this wonderful
experience. There are not many boys in rural areas that travel to other
countries, specifically Brazil,” he said
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