King William's Town team are through to the Danone Nations Cup national finals

A dream came true for 12 youngsters and their coach from King William’s Town when they made it to the national finals of the under-12 Danone Nations Cup soccer tournament.

Charles Morgan Primary School won the Eastern Cape Danone Nations Cup provincial title last weekend, beating Fort Malan Senior Primary School 1 – 0 in the final match.  The youngsters will be taking a trip to Gauteng on 15^th September and will be competing for the place to represent South Africa at the world finals happening in Spain in 2019.

“There is a first time for everything and this is our first to reach the nationals,” said an excited coach, Masixole Goli.  “I am a proud man!  I will give the boys a week off to recover as they have worked so hard in training as well as on the day of the provincials.  Then it is back to work to prepare for the nationals.”

Goli has been with the school since 2008 when they first entered the tournament.  They managed to reach the provincial finals on two previous occasions (2013 and 2015) and he made a tactical decision in 2017 not to enter the tournament but instead to select an under-11 team and get them to train at a local club. 

“My strategy worked,” said Goli.  “At club level the boys practice throughout the year and play matches on a regular basis, which they do not do at school.  They were therefore well prepared and experienced for the provincials.  Now I want to take it a step further and win the nationals to be the school to go to Spain.” However, he doesn’t want to put too much pressure on the players, but would love to give them the opportunity to write their own story when they grow up explaining how the Danone Nations Cup was the tournament that helped turn them into professional players.

“Mihlali Damesi played for the school in the 2013 Danone Nations Cup where he was identified and now he is a member of the Amajimbos, the national under-17 team. My players have the same opportunity and my dream is to keep producing players for national teams,” he said.

The Danone Nations Cup is a positive project because it shows young players how hard work pays off, Goli believes. “They should never stop believing in their dreams.”

At the provincial finals he encouraged the players to watch the other teams when they were not competing themselves, to analyse players’ strengths and weaknesses and to put their strategy together.

It paid off, he said. “After each game we re-grouped to discuss mistakes, motivate each other and work on the next game.”

The school was grouped with Nomandi Junior Secondary School, Ngxaza Junior Secondary School and Patekile Senior Primary School.

Goli told the boys that winning their first game, against Nomandi Junior Secondary School, was important and would determine their success throughout the tournament. They stuck to the game plan and they won 1-0.

The second game, against Ngxaza Junior Secondary School, was their toughest. Ngxaza lost their first match and wanted to redeem themselves. The game ended on 0-0 and went into penalties. Charles Morgan won 2-0.

The final group stage game was against Patekile Senior Primary School.  The players didn’t want to risk being too relaxed and they won 1-0.

In the final they met Fort Malan Senior Primary School. The players were determined, motivated and they had the backing of the school who were there to cheer them on.  “This was the first time we had ever reached the provincial final match and the boys were not going to back down which contributed to our 1 – 0 win.”

“It was an exciting and entertaining provincial final,” Goli said. “It was very windy, but the standard of football was good.”

Results:

Game 1: Mzimhlope Lower Primary School 0 vs Empumelelweni SPS 1

Game 2: Ngxaza JSS 0 vs Patekile SPS 2

Game 3: Gcinubuzwe Combined School 0 (3) vs Fort Malan SPS 0 (2)

Game: 4: Charles Morgan PS 1 vs Nomandi JSS 0

Game 5: Mzimhlope Lower Primary School 0 vs Gcinubuzwe Combined School 1

Game 6: Ngxaza JSS 0 (0) vs Charles Morgan PS 0 (2)

Game 7: Empumelelweni SPS 0 vs Fort Malan SPS 1

Game 8: Patekile SPS 1 vs Nomandi JSS 2

Game 9: Fort Malan SPS 2 vs Mzimhlope Lower Primary School 1

Game 10: Nomandi JSS 0 (3) vs Ngxaza JSS 0 (2)

Game 11: Gcinubuzwe Combined School 0 (3) vs Empumelelweni SPS 0 (2)

Game: 12: Charsle Morgan PS 1 vs Patekile SPS 0

Final: Fort Malan SPS 0 vs Charlse Morgan PS 1