Life changing trip to the USA for the under-12 soccer team from rural KZN

Competing in the under 12 Danone Nations Cup world finals was a life changing experience for the 12 young soccer players from Mophela Primary School in Ilanga, KwaZulu-Natal. 

The school is based in a poor community and does not have a soccer field on which to play and therefore the players have to walk a couple of kilometres to a nearby piece of ground.

But they did not let their circumstances hold them back in any way as they played against professionally run, well-resourced teams from around the world, finally finishing in 27^th position.

It was a case of firsts all the way for the boys – the first time away from home for many of the boys, the first time on an airplane and the first time overseas for all of them.

Seeing New York, as well as meeting boys their age from all over the world was an obvious highlight.

The big football lessons learned were that soccer is a mind game – you must learn to anticipate and to read the game. It’s about performing for the entire game, not about producing isolated moments of brilliance.

The boys came home as improved and well rounded players from the experience, ready to implement what they learned.

They played seven games in all, winning three and losing four. They ended up 3^rd in the preliminary round pool, which put them into the playoffs for positions 17 to 32 and they eventually beat England 2-1 in their final match for the 27^th place.

They beat England 3-2 in the preliminary stage and their other victory was a penalty shootout win over Senegal in the second round.

The team was beaten by the United Arab Emirates 2 – 0 in their first game of the tournament and they went on to beat England ending their league in third place after being beaten 3 – 0 by Indonesia.

A Lesson learnt from the Group phase of the tournament was that South Africa is not that far behind the other nations in terms of skill and physicality.  The main difference is that they lack the self-confidence to take their chances when they present themselves, and they are sometimes guilty of over-elaborating, dribbling for a moment too long and often losing possession as a result.

Against the UAE the SA team was extremely skilful and often did little tricks to get past their opposition, while the UAE was a well trained and structured team. South Africa dominated territory and possession and had many chances, but they did not take advantage of any of them. The UAE had fewer chances and managed to score two goals on the counter attack.

The second match was against England. South Africa dominated the match and went up 3-1 in no time, thanks to a hat trick by Njabulo Ndlovu. They then made a couple of substitutions that nearly cost them the game. It was important, however, that all the players got a chance to play and that they feel part of the tournament. They eventually won 3-2.

Indonesia’s strategy was simple: defend solidly, and don’t concede goals. They then used their giant number 11 player on the counter attack and he scored two goals for them, and set up the third.

The second day of the tournament saw the teams involved in classification games for positions 17 to 32. In their first second-round playoff game South Africa took on Belgium. They let a weak side dominate them. Belgium had quite a few chances in the first 10 minutes of the game but it took a goalkeeping error for them to score the only goal of the match.

They got their second victory when they beat the team from Senegal on penalties following a tight 0-0 draw in regulation time. The game was a tense affair.  Neither team was prepared to lose and did not manage to capitalize on the few good chances to score.  South Africa finally won the penalty shootout 3 – 2 with goalkeeper, Ndumiso Gumede scoring the winning goal.

Coach, Siyabonga Ndimande, decided, in the final game of the day, against Bulgaria, to start with all of his substitutes. Unfortunately the experiment backfired, and the team soon found themselves 3-0 behind. He made some substitutions and they made an impact, clawing back to 3-2.

Even though the team lost the game the coach was very happy with the decision that he made to play the substitutes. “There are no tourists in the team,” he said. “All of the players flew to New York to play and it is not fair on the bench players if they do not get a chance.”

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South Africa finish in 27th position in the Danone Nations Cup World Finals in the USA

Team South Africa finished in 27^th position, out of 32 teams, at the Danone Nations Cup World Finals tournament that was played in New York city over the weekend.

Mophela Primary School, of Hammarsdale, KZN, representing the country as SA Danone Nations Cup champions, beat the team from England 2-1 in their last playoff game on Sunday. The tournament was won by Mexico who beat Argentina 2-0 in the final.

England’s strategy in the final game was to play direct football and to try to upset the South Africans. They scored first when they won a corner and SA were not able to clear their lines, allowing England to have two chances at goal, scoring off the second attempt.

South Africa were shell shocked and they battled to bounce back from the goal but luckily for them, Njabulo Ndlovu, who was their player of the tournament, was having his best match.

He defended when he needed to, he attacked when he needed to, and more importantly he scored when he needed to. He scored his first goal off a free kick that was pinpoint and did not allow the English goalkeeper a chance to saving it.

His second goal came off a penalty that he executed with precision.

In the last 3 minutes of the game, once his team had taken the lead, coach Syabonga Ndimande put all the reserves on the field to give all the boys a chance to experience playing in the big stadium – the Red Bull Arena.

England thought that they would have the last say in the game when they won a free kick 5 meters outside the SA box but Njabulo managed to clear the ball, and run the length of the field before a deflection from England stopped him from scoring a hattrick.

The South Africa were very happy to win their last match of the tournament and dedicated the win to Heritage Day.

Final preparations are underway for the KZN under-12 school soccer team before they leave for New York to represent SA in the Danone Nations Cup world finals.

 

In two weeks time Mophela Primary School’s under-12 soccer team leaves for New York City to play in the Danone Nations Cup World Finals.

The last of the paperwork is being competed, which is the Visas for the USA and then the packing will start.

In the meantime, the hard work of preparing for the tournament is going on. The South Africans are in a tough section for the preliminary rounds, grouped with the UAE, England and Indonesia and coach, Siyabonga Ndimande, has warned the boys that none of them can be taken lightly and that winning the preliminary stage games is essential to put the team through to the top half of the tournament for the second round.

The team has been training at the Mpumalanga Stadium in Hammarsdale to give the players experience of practicing on a good surface, similar to the ones they will be playing on in the USA. 

Karabo Litabe, one of the players at Royal Eagles, the Durban-based National First Division Club, read about Mophela in a local newspaper and has donated soccer balls and other training equipment to the team.

“He has also offered to assist the coaches and team at a few training sessions and has also donated goalposts to the school,” Ndimande said. “He can give the boys valuable insight into playing in such tournaments.”

The boys have been working hard and are looking forward to a mind-broadening experience. “Meeting international players, learning new techniques and seeing another part of the world are all experiences of a lifetime,” Ndimande said.

The coach has been watching video clips of matches and doing research on the other teams in the group.

UAE is taking part in the Danone Nations Cup for the first time, but Ndimande won’t underestimate them because they will be dangerous underdogs.

The English are a passionate soccer nation and some of their players will play for local clubs, so they will be a challenge, but Ndimande is pretty confident that we can beat them.

The biggest challenge could come from the Indonesians. He has watched them play and their players are fast, and good distributors of the ball. “Our defence is going to have to be strong against them,” Ndimande concluded.

There will be 32 countries participating in the 18^th edition of the ‘Kids’ World Cup’.  It is a unique experience based on fundamental values that Danone has created over the years – humanity, openness, pleasure of the game and fair play.  The tournament has given millions of kids the opportunity of believing in their dreams and being heroes of a story they will never forget.

The mission of the Danone Nations Cup is to bring health through food to as many people as possible and the kids from KZN, as well as playing soccer, will also get to play games that will be based on the importance of developing healthy lifestyles which will benefit them throughout their lives.

The preliminary games will kick-off on Friday, 22 September with the finals on Sunday, 24 September.