Strivers clean up in football tourney

Strivers United Football Club U17s dominated at the Makhulukhulu Youth tournament last Sunday.

The tournament, sponsored by Makhulukhulu Protection Services, was held at Bhambayi Sportfield in Gamalakhe and comprised eight clubs, all from Gamalakhe.

Coach Andile Njenjane said coordinating the logistics of the tournament hadn’t been easy for the Strivers.

“It has not been easy for us as we have a limited number of squad members, due to schools being on recess and some of our players being away. We had to work with what we have, focusing on the players’ mentality,” he said.

Despite this, they still excelled.

He said once the players believed they could win it was half the job done.
“We had to play a number of games on the same and with a small squad of only 14 players it was certainly not pap and vleis (easy),” he said.

In the early game, they beat Makhulukhulu Squad 5-4 on penalties after the match ended in a 0-0 draw.

Then belief began in earnest.

After that they took on Gamalakhe Spurs in the semi-final and won 2-1.

In the final they came across Young Achievers and won by the same scoreline, 2-1, earning the right to raise aloft the trophy and wear the gold medals on offer.

To round off a successful day, and the absolute cherry on top, was hearing that many individual awards for the tournament went their way – Alwande Dlomo (goalkeeper), Lethokuhle Sgwebela (player) and Oluhle Gcaba (young player).

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