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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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