Tuesday, July 3, 2018

KZN teams are getting ready for the Danone Nations Cup Provincial Finals next month




 



It may be school holiday time for many South African schools, but that doesn’t mean the kids playing in the Danone Nations Cup soccer tournament are taking it easy. 

On the contrary, the message of the tournament is all about health and fitness and the under-12 soccer players know that they should be showing self-discipline, training on their own so that they will be fit and raring to go when the tournament resumes next term.

Five schools know that they are going to the national finals in Boksburg on 15th September and they need to keep their momentum going. In the remaining four provinces – KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Gauteng - the schools that will be playing in the provincial finals should be getting ready for those.

First up when school starts again is the KwaZulu-Natal provincial final at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium in Clermont, Durban on 28th July.

Eight of the 12 teams that will be participating are already known and include: Amajuba district: Esididini Primary School, IIembe district: Shakaskraal SA Primary School, King Cetshwayo district: Muzuvukile Primary School, Pinetown district: Georgedale Full Service School, Umgungundlovu district: Nhlambanasoka Primary School, uMkhanyakude district: Qomuphila Primary School, Umzinyathi district: Lewis Combined School; Umlazi district: Sherwood Primary School.

In 2017 Mophela Primary School won the tournament and went to New York to compete in the world finals, which was the third time since inception that KwaZulu-Natal has managed to win the tournament.  This is a statistic that the province is proud of and schools have pulled out all the stops to ensure that the trophy will be coming back to them.

Mophela competed in the Pinetown district playoffs but were knocked out. Their coach, Siyabonga Ndimande, is disappointed but admits that he doesn’t have a strong team this year. “In age group soccer every year is different and sometimes you just seem to have an amazing crop of players, as I did last year,” he said. “But it is a new crop of boys I have as all of last year’s players have moved on.”

Muzuvukile Primary School, representing King Cetshwayo district, is taking its participation seriously. The school is based in Richards Bay and they have brought in an outside coach this year to make a difference. 
They have been playing in the tournament since 2008 but they have never managed to get past the district phase. Thami Shezi, who joined the school this year as a teacher and the sports coordinator, realised that they didn’t have enough experience in soccer coaching and brought in Jimmy Makoba, a well-known youth coach in the area.

“It was a good decision,” Shezi said, “as this is the first time they have made it to the provincial finals.”
The coaching staff have instructed all the kids to keep fit, ensure they eat properly to keep up their stamina and energy and they will resume training when they get back to school, which will be two weeks prior to the provincial final.

The King Cetshwayo District finals took place at the Richards Bay Sport Complex. There were 21 schools there, divided into 7 groups.

Muzuvukile Primary School were grouped with Fuyeni Primary School and Cwaka Primary School. In their first match they beat Fuyeni 1-0, followed by another 1-0 win, over Cwaka Primary School, which put them on top of the group.

In the quarter finals they met Somopho Primary School, who had a poor defence and Muzuvukile won 2-0.

Their semifinal, against Vondlo Primary School was a tough game and it looked as if it would end in a draw but in the dying seconds Muxuvukile scored to win 1-0.

The final was against Ocilwane Primary School and Shezi said the team rose to the occasion and played an impressive game. “They proved that they are not afraid to take on the best and they  won 2-0.”

Ends. 






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