{"id":64657,"date":"2025-02-13T15:20:24","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T13:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=64657"},"modified":"2025-02-13T15:20:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T13:20:24","slug":"gdl-top-eight-knockout-competition-to-kick-off-2025-gdl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=64657","title":{"rendered":"GDL Top Eight knockout competition to kick off 2025 GDL Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-61350\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/under-17s-400x380.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"380\" \/>The <strong>Gauteng Development League (GDL)<\/strong>, Africa&#8217;s largest development football competition, returns to the park, to our television screens, and the <strong>SuperSport Schools app<\/strong>, this weekend with the <strong>Top Eight<\/strong> knockout competition set for an explosive start on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Having fought hard in the GDL for 10 months, last year, <strong>Highlands Park<\/strong>, <strong>Mamelodi Sundowns<\/strong>, <strong>Kaizer Chiefs<\/strong>, <strong>SuperSport United<\/strong>, <strong>TS Galaxy<\/strong>, <strong>Tuks<\/strong>, the <strong>School of Excellence,<\/strong> and <strong>Jomo Cosmos<\/strong> finished in the top eight in the league standings, in that order.<\/p>\n<p>Their reward is an opportunity to play for the Top Eight trophy from 15 to 23 February.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SuperSport United<\/strong> is the defending champion. They beat their Pretoria rivals, Mamelodi Sundowns, 2-0 in last year&#8217;s final, courtesy of goals from <strong>Lucky Muthewi<\/strong> and <strong>Kabelo Selowa<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Coach <strong>Tumelo Ndaba<\/strong>&#8216;s SuperSport u19 team will have to get past TS Galaxy at their home, Eskom Megawatt Park, on Sunday to reach next week&#8217;s semi-finals.<\/p>\n<p>Mamelodi Sundowns, under coach <strong>Surprise Moriri<\/strong>, will lock horns with Tuks in another big showdown of Pretoria clubs at <strong>Clapham High School<\/strong>, in Queenswood, Pretoria. Coach <strong>David Mathebula<\/strong>&#8216;s Kaizer Chiefs welcomes Jomo Cosmos at the <strong>Kaizer Chiefs Village<\/strong> on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Highland Parks, the reigning and back-to-back league champions, will be focussed on making a good start to the season when they take on School of Excellence at <strong>Balfour Park<\/strong> on Saturday. With coach <strong>Sifiso Mnguni<\/strong> masterminding their challenge, the <em><strong>Lions of the North<\/strong> <\/em>will fancy their chances.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quarterfinals Fixtures<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Saturday<\/strong><br \/>\nMamelodi Sundowns vs Tuks<br \/>\nKaizer Chiefs vs Jomo Cosmos<br \/>\nHighlands Park vs School of Excellence<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sunday<\/strong><br \/>\nSuperSport United vs TS Galaxy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Gauteng Development League (GDL), Africa&#8217;s largest development football competition, returns to the park, to our television screens, and the SuperSport Schools app, this weekend with the Top Eight knockout competition set for an explosive start on Saturday. Having fought hard in the GDL for 10 months, last year, Highlands Park, Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":61350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64657","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\/64657","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\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}