{"id":77473,"date":"2025-07-13T11:24:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T09:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=77473"},"modified":"2025-07-13T11:24:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T09:24:52","slug":"stellenbosch-knocked-out-of-engen-knockout-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=77473","title":{"rendered":"Stellenbosch knocked out of Engen Knockout Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_77474\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-77474\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-77474\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/B25GLMN5520-400x295.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"295\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-77474\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stellenbosch and Valhalla United deliveed a nail-biting quarterfinal match on day two of the 2025 Engen Knockout Challenge at the Erica Park Sports Ground, Belhar on the 12 July 2025. Photo: Muzi Ntombela\/BackpagePix.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Day two of the <strong>2025 Engen Knockout Challenge Cape Town<\/strong> leg, at <strong>Erica Sports Grounds<\/strong>, delivered thrilling quarterfinals, with <strong>Cape Town Roses<\/strong> continuing their defence of the women&#8217;s u20 title, while <strong>Valhalla United<\/strong> ended <strong>Stellenbosch FC<\/strong>\u2019s long-standing dominance in the boys&#8217; u18 division.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cape Town Roses cruised into the semi-finals after a commanding 5\u20131 win over <strong>RV United<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The defending champions topped their group, and they carried that momentum into the quarterfinals with another structured and confident performance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the boys\u2019 division, Valhalla United edged out Stellenbosch FC 1\u20130 in a tightly contested clash.<\/p>\n<p>The result was significant, not only did it eliminate the two-time champions, but it also marked the first time that Stellenbosch FC had conceded a goal in the Engen Knockout Challenge in three years.<\/p>\n<p>Valhalla\u2019s rise also underscored the vital role that platforms like the Engen Knockout Challenge play in identifying and developing emerging football talent.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Valhalla had secured second place in their group with a 2\u20130 win over <strong>City Town<\/strong>, which set up their quarterfinal clash with Stellenbosch. Their journey to the semi-finals provided further proof of the depth and competitiveness coming through Cape Town\u2019s grassroots system.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Stellenbosch FC bowed out of the competition, their defensive record and consistency across multiple editions of the Engen Knockout Challenge have set a high bar. They&#8217;ll, no doubt, be back among the title contenders in 2026.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Women&#8217;s quarterfinal results<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cape Town Roses 5-1 Rygate Ladies<br \/>\nSalt River Blackpool 1-0 Ubuntu Football<br \/>\nRV United 3-1 CPUT Ladies<br \/>\nDangerous Heroes 3-0 Magic Ladies<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Boys&#8217; quarterfinal results<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cape Town City 2-1 Norway Parks<br \/>\nSAFA Cape Town Academy 1-0 Cape Town Spurs<br \/>\nValhalla United 1-0 Stellenbosch<br \/>\nEagles Performance United 1-0 Everton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Day two of the 2025 Engen Knockout Challenge Cape Town leg, at Erica Sports Grounds, delivered thrilling quarterfinals, with Cape Town Roses continuing their defence of the women&#8217;s u20 title, while Valhalla United ended Stellenbosch FC\u2019s long-standing dominance in the boys&#8217; u18 division. Cape Town Roses cruised into the semi-finals after a commanding 5\u20131 win [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":77474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77473","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\/77473","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=77473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}