Author: sipongco

Fountain Gate of Tanzania and Ben Sekou of Guinea walk away as the first inaugural championship of the CAF African Schools Football Championship at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium in Clermont, South Africa.

For the final (boys and girls), it was all to play for; concentration levels were high from the first minute of the game as teams were competing for the bragging rights of becoming the first winners of the CAF African Schools Football Championship. 

Girls Competition/Final

Fountain Gate School of Tanzania walks away from Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium as the first inaugural CAF African Schools Football Championship of the girl’s competition. Fountain Gate took to the finals against Ecole Omar IBN Khatab of Morocco after defeating CEG De Mfilou of Congo by 4 goals to nil. 

Spectators were expecting an electrifying final between these two teams, and they were in for a treat as both teams had proven their dominance throughout the competition. Fountain Gate had the upper hand in the first few minutes of the game as they took an early lead in the 14th minute through Winfrida Gerald.

Fountain Gate missed an opportunity to extend the lead right after, through a missed opportunity by Mary Siyame and a fantastic save by Ahlam Boukhorb, the goalkeeper of Omar who has been fantastic throughout the finals. 

Coming into the 2nd half of the match, Winifrida Gerald extended the lead for her team. 8 minutes before the match ended, Irene Chitanda scored the last goal of the match ensuring her team away with the trophy and with USD 300 000.

Runners-up, who also had a great tournament despite losing out on the finals, the young girls of Omar will walk away with their head help up high and with USD 200 000. 

Boys Competition/Final

The last match of the day, for the CAF African Schools Football Championship between the home side Clapham High School and Ben Sekou from Guinea. Coming into the final, Clapham High School defeated Sainte Rita by a goal to nil to secure a spot in the final. 

A very physical and highly contested first half between Clapham and Ben Sekou. Although ending the 1st half 0-0, Ben Sekou took control of the ball possession using sheer dominance of physicality to their advantage.

Goals in the final game came in the 2nd half as Ben Sekou took the first lead through Amara Keita jersey no.10 who has been one of the exciting players to watch in the finals.

Clapham equalized in the 31st minute through a beautiful goal by Kagiso Maloka who came in the 2nd half of the game. The match final ended in a 1 all draw taking the game into the penalties where Ben Sekou Sylla walked out victorious by scoring all five penalties while their opponent, Clapham missed only one of their penalties. 

A very successful inaugural competition that saw 41 countries and 20 000 registered schools to play in the CAF African Schools Football Championship; it all came down to 14 schools from countries to compete in Durban, South Africa for the finals of the competition.

Ben Sekou and Fountain Gate proudly walk away as the first winners of the competition.

However, the beauty of this competition is that everyone walked as a winner as this speaks volume to the long term development and investment of football on the youth ranks and in schools of the African continent. 

Victoria Park High School hosted a successful soccer tournament at Dave Weinronk Sports Complex that saw schools coming from all over the country to participate in a three-day tournament. The venue was packed with excitement all over the participants and the supporters and some with clear nervous moments written in their faces.  

Schools such as the Northwood travelled all the way from the KZN province to Gqeberha/Port Elizabeth for the tournament. It was the school’s first participation in the tournament, and they won U18 Plate Final, defeating Sanctor by 2 goals to nil. Speaking to Mini Khoza, the director of Soccer at Northwood he could not express how grateful he was for his school to not only be invited to the Victoria Park Soccer Challenge but to actually walk away with something. “As you can see, the boys are happy that they have come to participate, and I am proud of their achievement. Hopefully, next year we can walk away with everything as champions of the Victoria Soccer Challenge”, he said. 

The home side, Victoria Park High School U16 thumped Hudson Park by 4 goals to nil in the U16 Final Cup. The home side fans packed up the grounds in full support of their team and the side did not disappoint as they took the game under full control in the early stages of the game. By the time it was the 2nd half, Victoria Park were clear favourites to win the U16 Final Cup. Coming into the 2nd half of the game, Hudson Park showed signs of competing and making a comeback however, the home side proved to be too much for them. 

Another final that was entertaining that had everyone in full joy was between Alexandra Road and Vulumzi Senior Secondary School. Anathi Ndorho was the outstanding player for the game as she terrorised Alexandra defenders on the left wing. With jersey number eleven on her, she became a clear fan favourite of the fans in the stands as she showed skills, clean passes and in total control of the game. Anathi Ndorho was the top goal scorer of the tournament with nine goals. Together with her team, they thumped Alexandra Road by 5 goals. 

First team winners U18 boys, Urban Academy, played against Selborne College from East London. Both teams held each other to a 1-1 draw, leaving the game to the penalties, where Urban Academy won by 5-4 to walk away as champions of the Victoria Park Soccer Challenge. 

Coming into today’s game a win for Highlands Park u19 would see them edging closer to the second or even the first spot of the Gauteng Development League.

Highlands Park lost their first game of the season, to Tuks u19, however after that tough loss on the first day the team picked itself up. Since then they went on to beat teams such as the School of Excellence by eight goals to nil and the Remember Elite Sports Academy by three goals to nil. 

On a calm afternoon, Highlands Park u19 took to the grounds and faced their opponents, Prestige Football Development Academy. 

Highlands Park showed hunger and determination in the first minute of the game as they took an early lead. With high pressing, the team showed how comfortable they were with the ball on their feet. Finding through the gaps in the midfield position the team took dominance and played to their strength by knocking the ball in and around the field. 

Going into the second half, the score could have been worse than as it was due to several missed opportunities by Highlands Park U19 forwards. However, they comfortably ended the first half leading three goals to nil. 

Coming into the second half, the team even looked more dangerous as they were in the first half, with sheer dominance. The Prestige Football Academy continued to hunt for a consoling goal in the second half, however their opponents proved to be a tough mountain to climb. 

In the dying stages of the game (88th minute on the clock) Highlands Park u19 had netted three goals making it 6 nil lead. 

Once again Highlands Park comfortably beat their opponents by six goals to nil, continuing with their impressive run on netting goals. That leaves the team with 4 wins and one loss after five games in the log of the GDL. 

Highlands Park sits on the third position with 12 points just lagging behind Mamelodi Sundowns who are on the 2nd position with 15 points, meanwhile Kaizer Chiefs U19 continues to lead the log, also with 15 points after 5 games.  

The city of East London is keeping soccer alive and well in a province predominant of rugby and other sporting code areas. 

The Buffalo City High Schools Soccer League devised three separate league tiers under the local football association of Bunkers West Local Football Association. Bunkers West is a SAFA recognised Local Football Association and under their guidance and guideline High Schools participating in these leagues are eligible for SAFA competitions.

The province is blessed with talent as much as other provinces when it comes to football, however there are significant constraints in getting that talent out there. During an interview with the league coordinators, Matthew Geach and Tevin Klaase they highlighted some of these factors: Lack of media coverage, sponsorships deals and commitments from the relevant structures in supporting and nurturing the talent that the provinces posses results in lost opportunities for the young boys who hope to play the sport at a professional level. 

The Buffalo City High Schools Soccer league has come from a long run and the team has been applauded for its growth over the years. Currently the league is set up in three blocks (Block A, B and Block C) designed in a manner that each block has been allocated based on their geographical location to further assist schools that may have transport issues getting to travel the pupils to the games out of their reach. The league coordinators also said that they are in the process of setting up a Girls High Soccer Schools league to further encourage the growth of soccer in the region. 

The league is already under-way, Selborne College is leading the table with 9 points after successfully winning their three games. 

Here are today’s fixtures are as follows- Block B: 

Round 5 – 22/03/2023

Dale College vs Center of Excellence
Stutternheim vs Selborne College
Merrifield vs De Vos Malan
George Randell vd Baysville

Round 6 – 19/04/2023

Selborne College vs Center of Excellence
Cathcart vs Dale College
Baysville vs Stutterheim
George Randell vs Merrifield