Ambassadors FC conquer the Powerico Winter Games

Tembisa Powerico Winter Games wrapped up on the weekend with Ambassadors FC emerging victorious.

Thirty-two soccer teams participated in the first edition of the Powerico soccer tournament which kicked off on July 1 and ran until July 30.

Tournament organiser Power Makhura, said the event was successful and had massive support from Tembisa and other soccer fans in general.

“All teams behaved very well and were able to abide by the set rules. Fans were also well behaved. As a new tournament we have learnt from our shortcomings and we will make sure that we improve in the second edition of the Powerico winter games in 2018. Next year we are looking to add a netball tournament as part of the event,” said Makhura.

Makhura said he is happy that there was a gap for winter games in Tembisa because in previous years, Tembisan teams would participate in the tournaments of other townships.

“I was approached by both the teams who participated, as well as those did not participate, and they expressed their gratitude and promised to be part of next year’s tournament. We will go bigger and include music for entertainment. We will also invite vendors and other small businesses to come and showcase their products at the 2018 Powerico winter games”.

He said Powerico winter games is a community project. Members of the community who have innovative ideas to improve the tournament, should come forward and present their ideas.

Ambassadors FC walked away with R100 000 after beating Amavutherian 1 – 0.

Katlego Maphakola, Ambassadors FC coach, said the tournament had been very challenging for his team.

“We are a new team and fans were not familiar with us although we are originally a team from Tembisa. The team is eight months old. The tournament came at a difficult pre-season time when players were undergoing assessments and going to trials, looking for new teams.”

He said despite the challenges, the tournament had been well organised and the standard was high as they played a lot of experienced teams.

“It is a good tournament to be part of ; it taught us a lot of things. New young players were given an opportunity to showcase their talent,” he added.

Commenting on the team’s matches, coach Maphakola said the games were played in good spirit.

“In the first half of our final game against Amavutherian, the game was open to both teams and both teams were not afraid to attack each other.

“We had no substitute in the first half of the game because there was no need for it as everything was balanced”.

Fifteen minutes into the game Victor Uchemudi scored the only winning goal for Ambassadors FC.

The coach added that in the second half he was forced to make changes by doing two substitutes because of injuries sustained by players.

Tito Maswanganyi was taken out and Senzo Nkwanyana took to the pitch to take his place. The second substitute was Michael Makula. He went out and Tladi Mosheou went in his place.

Maphakola said all in all it had been a good tournament and they were looking forward to participating again next year.