North West shows fight at SANDF champs

The SANDF Kopanelo sports grounds will be turned into a footballing field of dreams this week as the annual National SANDF Football championships take place in Potchefstroom from 21-26 August.
The action already got underway on Sunday as some of the country’s top SANDF footballers portrayed their arsenal of skills on the pitch. Provinces that are participating are North West, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Western Province, Limpopo, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, Free State, West Coast and Mpumalanga.
North West is hosting the tournament and the province’s men’s and women’s teams got the action underway with the first two matches of the day. North West men’s team took on the men from Kwa-Zulu Natal in the first match of Group A and controlled most of the possession.
North West captain, David Molokomme, was one of the shining stars in the centre of midfield and, together with Neville Manchu, provided the biggest attacking threat. The first half ended goalless, though, as both sides cancelled each other out with tight defensive displays.
KZN started the second half like a house on fire and deserved the lead when Medimetja Matlala went down in the box. The referee pointed to the penalty spot and Mbhasobhi Mthetwa converted to give his team a 1-0 lead.
North West also kept on plugging away with little success for most of the half, with the keeper, Bafundi Dudula keeping the team in the game with a couple of excellent saves.
Molokomme also went inches from the equaliser with a long-range shot that fizzed off the crossbar. This was a sign of things to come for the home team, which injected its last bit of energy into the final ten minutes.
With four minutes to go, North West finally found the net when a goal-mouth scramble resulted in an easy tap-in for Ramankung Mampuru.
The match ended 1-1 which was a fair result in a closely fought encounter.
The North West women also played great football and won their match 1-0 after Obakeng Morifi scored in the second half.

The fixtures (North West) for today, Tuesday, 23 August are as follows:
North West vs. Western Province (Men) – 09:00
North West vs. Mpumalanga (Women) – 13:30
North West vs Gauteng (Men) – 13:30.