Benny's Sports Development and Academy are five times Kay Motsepe Schools Cup champions.

Benny’s Sports Development and Academy are the Limpopo Kay Motsepe Schools Cup champions for the fifth time.  They beat Mammoka High School 4 – 1 in a penalty shoot on Saturday at the Mahwelereng Stadium in Mokopane.  Both teams qualify for the national finals taking place in Soweto from 5 – 10 October.

Justice Matloga has coached all five teams to victory and admits that every year is challenging. “Each year is a different experience, we never know what to expect it’s not like we have a formula figured out or anything,” he said.

This year’s team is a young one, made up of mainly 17 year-old and Matloga said the idea was to give them some experience in the competition. “They will have three years in this tournament which is great exposure for them,” he said.

“I must say that they surprised me. They did exceptionally well in this tournament and I know that they will continue to surprise me even further at the nationals.”

The team did not do very well at last year’s national playoffs – they were knocked out in the early round and ended up in 11^th place.

“This year we will take it in one step at a time and do better than last year.  Winning the nationals has been long overdue.  We started playing in the tournament a long time ago and this year our primary goal is to win the national title.  This is a young team and they have the energy and the hunger for success.”

Matloga is well aware of what the nationals are all about and admits it’s a different ball game compared to the provincials. “The competition is tighter and the standards are extremely high.  Then there are scouts from the clubs there, which all adds pressure on the boys as they have to perform.”

Matloga has been at Benny’s for 11 years now, and his philosophy is to enter all the teams into as many different soccer tournaments as possible to make sure that the players gain practical knowledge of the game.

“We identify players from the under-12 age group and nurture them as they progress through the various age groups to ensure that they develop good habits and are well disciplined. I think that what has made us so successful in Limpopo for so many years has been the careful preparation we put in. I’m hoping that preparation will take us all the way to the national title this year.”

Results

Mammoka 2 vs Gwenane 0

Kgahlana Morulana 1 vs Benny’s 2

Gwenane 1 vs Magoza 0

Benny’s 2 vs Kgahlana Morulana 0

Magoza 1 vs Mammoka 1

Final

Benny’s 1 (4) vs Mammoka 1 (1)