Benny’s Academy returns to SA

Benny’s Sports Academy and Development returned to South Africa after a successful 2016 Danone Nations Cup World Final where they finished in 14th place overall with 32 countries competing. South Africa’s best finish since 2009 where they won the tournament.

Benny’s managed to finish second in their group after beating South Korea 1 -0, Italy, the first all-girls team to compete in the finals, 3-0 but losing to Indonesia 1-0. The second round was tough with the team facing Brazil in their first top 16 games.

After losing 1-0, they were fighting for position nine to 16. They then faced a strong Tunisian team that was far bigger and stronger than Benny’s players.

After an early goal, the South Africans fought back hard but failed to get the ball past a very alert goalkeeper leaving the boys fighting for position 13 to 16. The match of the tournament saw the South Africans running onto the field next to Uruguay, arguably the tallest boys in this year’s world finals. They refused to let the height of their opponents intimidate them and they outplayed them completely winning 2-1 and progressing to meet Russia in their final match. That game was played at the Stade de France.

After conceding an early goal South Africa fought hard and pulled one back to make it 1-all. However, the more composed European counterparts proved better in the penalty shootout and won it 3-1. On their return to South Africa, coach Mbishi Mokwena said that undoubtedly the game against Brazil was their toughest. “The world finals were a learning experience and the way the Brazilians used the field was an eye opener and very interesting to watch. “We were lucky to lose by such a narrow margin and our goalkeeper, Hulisani Mashau had a cracker of a game.

“We went back to the drawing board after that game and used Brazil’s tactic against Uruguay and it worked in our favour,” he said.

Germany was the ultimate winner beating Japan 3-1 on penalties at the legendary Stade de France in Paris, with Spain beating Brazil 2-1 to finish the 3rd and 4th places respectively.