Florida Albion and Panorama take on a few of Mpumalanga’s finest

A rare treat is the taste of a new test and the fire of inter-provincial competition.

Florida Albion hosted a one-day, multiple-team tournament played across three age groups on Sunday, August 8. Under the Lake Umuzi Soccer Challenge banner, five clubs from Mpumalanga would travel to Trezona Park to take on two local clubs – Florida Albion Football Club (FAFC) and Panorama Football Club. As an incentive, the best teams on the day would earn an opportunity to partake in a soccer-themed festival at the Lake Umuzi Waterfront in Secunda later this year.

Carara Kicks, Banana Boys, Juventus, Zone Two and MVP XI were the special guests on the day, bringing a level of competition not often experienced by the two Roodepoort clubs. In each age group, one group of four teams would play a round-robin section before squaring off again in a knockout bracket. In the U/11 section, MVP XI would claim overall victory, while FAFC and Juventus won the U/13 and U/15 sections, respectively.

“I was happy with Florida Albion’s performance as we only had two training sessions to prepare coming straight from lockdown. Our U/11 squad was mixed with players from U/10 to give them exposure. Our U/13s did exceptionally well as they went ahead to surprise us and win their age group, and the u/15s were unlucky to concede an own goal that would place them as runners-up,” expressed FAFC Director of Coaching, Tshepang Mohapi.

Amateur leagues are set to start again on August 14, and while Panorama took part in the tournament, they were a late addition, having only been scheduled to play a warm-up curtain-raiser on the day. “I would like to say thank you and congratulations to Panorama FC whose U/13 team took part in the tournament and came third, which qualifies them to travel to Secunda for the medal ceremony at the end of October,” stated Tshepang.

The showpiece community event in Mpumalanga will acknowledge the various winners from multiple tournaments while focusing on building friendships in the sport, all at the picturesque setting of Lake Umuzi. Tshepang concluded, “I would also like to extend a thank you to Joseph Mtakwende, who is the tournament coordinator from Mpumalanga, and who selected FAFC to host and organise this day.”