{"id":66098,"date":"2025-03-03T17:44:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=66098"},"modified":"2025-03-03T17:44:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:44:57","slug":"sevens-academy-keeps-defending-champions-at-bay-in-gdl-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=66098","title":{"rendered":"Seven&#8217;s Academy keeps defending champions at bay in GDL opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_66129\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66129\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-66129\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/football-sevens-academy-brandon-lohan-030225-400x256.jpeg\" alt=\"Brendon Lohan (right), the Chairman of Sevens Academy, helped the club successfully navigate their first season in the GDL in 2024. They made a solid start to 2025 with a draw against the defending champions, Highlands Park. \" width=\"400\" height=\"256\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-66129\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brendon Lohan (right), the Chairman of Seven&#8217;s Academy, helped the club successfully navigate their first season in the GDL in 2024. They made a solid start to 2025 with a draw against the defending champions, Highlands Park.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The first round of the highly anticipated 2025 <strong>Gauteng Development League (GDL)<\/strong> got underway on the weekend with <strong>Highlands Park<\/strong> vying for a third straight title.<\/p>\n<p>With <strong>Kaizer Chiefs<\/strong>, <strong>Mamelodi Sundowns,<\/strong> and <strong>School of Excellence<\/strong>, among others, eager to put a stop to the dominance of the &#8220;<em><strong>Lions of the North<\/strong><\/em>&#8220;, coach <a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/pep-guardiola-inspired-sifiso-mnguni-gunning-for-gdl-three-peat\/\"><strong>Sifiso Mnguni&#8217;s Highlands Park<\/strong> <\/a>had their work cut out for them. Their success means they have a target on their backs this season.<\/p>\n<p>They travelled to Woodlands on Saturday, for an opener against <strong>Seven&#8217;s Academy <\/strong>where the hosts made their home-ground advantage count by holding the defending champions to a 2-2 draw.<\/p>\n<p>Chiefs also faced a tough opener away from home. They visited Tshwane for a showdown with SuperSport United.<\/p>\n<p>The Amakhosi started the contest well and went into a 2-0 lead, but SuperSport United kept fighting and a late penalty earned the Pretoria club a 2-2 draw with coach David Mathebula&#8217;s highly rated Chiefs&#8217; team.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Football - U19 Kaizer Chiefs vs U19 Supersport United - Gauteng Development League - 2 March 2025\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9P-tGanu0fU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Remember Elite Sport Academy (RESA)<\/strong> and <strong>TS Galaxy<\/strong> delivered an entertaining encounter. It was highlighted\u00a0by <strong>Tshepang Mologetso<\/strong>&#8216;s brace and <strong>Buchule Mbana<\/strong>&#8216;s solitary goal, which helped RESA record an upset victory.<\/p>\n<p>Assists from <strong>Banele Radebe<\/strong> and <strong>Amukelo Mthombeni<\/strong> were crucial in RESA&#8217;s 3-0 win over last season&#8217;s fifth-placed finishers.<\/p>\n<p>There were goals galore in league newbies, <strong>Rockevs FC<\/strong>&#8216;s first GDL outing and they ended it with a share of the points after holding the seasoned <strong>Randburg AFC<\/strong> to a 3-3 draw.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Football - School of Excellence vs Panorama Football Club - Gauteng Development League- 1 March 2025\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0JUZMLIxfbo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>While the winning margin was convincing, School of Excellence had to fight their way back from falling 0-2 behind to claim the points. They trailed 1-2 at the break.<\/p>\n<p>Bad weather led to the game between <strong>Tuks<\/strong> and <strong>Kathorus Hyper Academy<\/strong> being called off.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Seven&#8217;s Academy 2-2 Highlands Park<br \/>\nSuperSport United 2-2 Kaizer Chiefs<br \/>\nRemember Elite Sport Academy 3-0 TS Galaxy<br \/>\nRockevs FC 3-3 Randburg AFC<br \/>\nWits Junior 4-3 Joburg City<br \/>\nSchool of Excellence 4-2 Panorama FC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first round of the highly anticipated 2025 Gauteng Development League (GDL) got underway on the weekend with Highlands Park vying for a third straight title. With Kaizer Chiefs, Mamelodi Sundowns, and School of Excellence, among others, eager to put a stop to the dominance of the &#8220;Lions of the North&#8220;, coach Sifiso Mnguni&#8217;s Highlands [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":55024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66098","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\/66098","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=66098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}