{"id":31400,"date":"2023-12-13T09:59:34","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T07:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=31400"},"modified":"2023-12-13T09:59:34","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T07:59:34","slug":"edendale-technical-ready-to-defend-their-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=31400","title":{"rendered":"Edendale Technical ready to defend their title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The\u00a0CAF African Schools Football Champs, Cosafa qualifiers<\/strong>, take place at the\u00a0Gateway School<\/strong>\u00a0in\u00a0Zimbabwe<\/strong>\u00a0from 14-16 December, with South Africa\u2019s\u00a0Edendale Technical<\/strong>\u00a0High School<\/strong> as the defending girls\u2019 champions.<\/p>\n

The stage has been set and the draw has been finalised for the highly anticipated competition, with\u00a0Zimbabwe, the host nation, in Group A alongside\u00a0Malawi<\/strong>,\u00a0Botswana<\/strong>,\u00a0Eswatini<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Mozambique<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

South Africa<\/strong>\u00a0has been named as the seeded team for Group B, following the country\u2019s victory in both the boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 competitions at the 2022 zonal event in Lilongwe, Malawi. Tough competition awaits them from\u00a0Angola<\/strong>,\u00a0Zambia<\/strong>,\u00a0Namibia<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Madagascar<\/strong>\u00a0for places in the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

Donning the South African colours are Edendale Technical High School and the\u00a0Ubuntu Football Academy<\/strong>, which takes over in the boys\u2019 draw from\u00a0Clapham High School<\/strong>, who did duty in 2022. A big challenge awaits both South African teams as they bid to keep the titles in the country\u2019s possession.<\/p>\n

What is on the line for the defending girls\u2019 champions, Edendale Technical, is a place in the final round of the CAF African Schools Football Champs.<\/p>\n

Under the guidance of their experienced coach,\u00a0Ntombifuthi Khumalo<\/strong>, who holds a CAF C-Licence, Edendale is determined to be the pride of the \u201cRainbow Nation\u201d once again. Popularly known as \u201cCoach Muchichwa<\/strong>\u201c, Khumalo has a couple of players who featured in 2022 returning, namely captain Asanda Ziqubu<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Esihle Zuma<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

She thanked coaches and local schools who have supported her and been pushing her team to do its best against the leading development talent from the southern region of Africa.<\/p>\n

Coach Khumalo said supporters should expect to see that she has grown along with her players. \u201cEven though we won last during the Cosafa qualifiers, I was not happy with the performance, knowing how well these girls can play. However, we have gone back to the growing board and since then we have shown hunger and determination, and that we deserve to play at this level,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Preparing for a tournament of this calibre was a challenge, Khumalo said, because of a lack of competitive games for girls at the junior level. She has worked at the development level in various schools since 2011, but she said there remains a lack of understanding in the country that young girls could have a future playing football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith clubs such as Mamelodi Sundowns winning their second CAF women\u2019s title and Banyana Banyana\u2019s success at the 2023 World Cup and at continental level, this should be a perfect time to make a greater investment in women\u2019s football at all levels, so that we ensure the continuity and longevity of the game\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

Khumalo said coaching at the development level is challenging. However, she thanked the\u00a0Motsepe Foundation<\/strong>\u00a0and its partners for their support, which has resulted in more girls than ever before playing football from a young age, with their interest in the game at a peak.<\/p>\n

Edendale has already produced a number of players for the local\u00a0South African National League<\/strong>, Khumalo added. She expressed her confidence in the current squad, saying that many of them are destined to play the game at a higher level because of their talent, dedication and love of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got two former school captains in\u00a0Lonathemba (Mhlongo)<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Snegugu (Zondi)<\/strong>, both playing for the University of the Western Cape<\/strong>,\u201d Mr\u00a0Sihle Basi<\/strong>, Edendale Sports Chairperson wrote in an article. \u201cThere\u2019s also\u00a0Nosipho (Mahlawe)<\/strong>\u00a0playing for\u00a0Royal AM Ladies<\/strong>, and Mhlongo is now a regular member of the\u00a0Banyana<\/strong>\u00a0(Banyana) squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also got\u00a0Olwethu (Sosibo)<\/strong>,\u00a0Nobahle (Mdelwa)<\/strong>,\u00a0Asanda (Mchunu)<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Fanele (Madonsela)<\/strong>, all of whom were part of the\u00a0under-20 national team<\/strong>. Mhlongo has a scholarship in Spain, through LaLiga\u2019s programme in collaboration with the COSAFA\/SAFA and is spending a year in Madrid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0CAF African Schools Football Champs, Cosafa qualifiers, take place at the\u00a0Gateway School\u00a0in\u00a0Zimbabwe\u00a0from 14-16 December, with South Africa\u2019s\u00a0Edendale Technical\u00a0High School as the defending girls\u2019 champions. The stage has been set and the draw has been finalised for the highly anticipated competition, with\u00a0Zimbabwe, the host nation, in Group A alongside\u00a0Malawi,\u00a0Botswana,\u00a0Eswatini\u00a0and\u00a0Mozambique. South Africa\u00a0has been named as the seeded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":31401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}