Bree Primary School bounces back in Danone Nations Cup

One time world champions of the Danone Nations Cup, Bree Primary School, has now bounced back.

This after the history-making 2009 Danone Nations Cup world final winners wrote their name on the Gauteng leg of the competition after edging out Sonqoba Primary School 2-0 in the Gauteng provincial finals.

This paves the way for the champion school to return to the world stage once again, if they can only overcome their opponents in the national finals of the competition on 27 June at the WJ Clements Stadium in Reiger Park.

From the word go, there were only two teams in the tournament. The Bree and Sonqoba teams dominated the competition and proved why they are regarded as two of the most successful teams in Gauteng.

They came out top of their groups and met in a showdown final. Sonqoba made it to the Gauteng provincial finals in the two previous years, winning the 2013 final to represent the province in the national finals, but failed to make it past that stage for the world finals.

Although Sonqoba finished the group stages of the current tournament unbeaten, scoring eight goals in their three games, Bree on the other hand started somewhat well by beating Christian Progressive Academy 2-0. They then got overconfident and drew with one of the weaker schools in the competition, Tsumbedzo Primary School, 1-1 and went down on penalties.

Bree did just enough to win their group ahead of the academy and advanced to the final. The final game was a tight contest and Bree had the best chances in the first half, but kicked a ball just wide in open play, then watched a free kick drift past the left hand corner of the goal.

The second half was a game of chess that saw both teams battle to get anywhere near the goal until the stroke of full time when Bree was awarded a penalty. The penalty kick was a decent one, but thanks to a fantastic save by the Sonqoba goalkeeper, they could not score.

So, it was 0-0 at the end and Bree won the penalty shootout 2-0 to advance to the national finals.

Devanand Kallicharan, headmaster of Bree Primary School and manager of the team, said he was delighted with the win, but had a few concerns over his injured players, as he doubted they would be fit enough for the national finals.