Masizakhe Academy wins pre-season

GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - The pre-season mini-soccer tournament, organised by Eleven Attackers, was played by 13 teams on Saturday and Sunday at Newlands rugby field and uMasizakhe stadium.

Each club donated R200 in the pool to play in the tournament. The games started on Saturday with the fixtures and the knockout.

The semi-finals and finals were played at Masizakhe Stadium on Sunday.

Score:

Semi-finals

Real Madrid Football Club (Masizakhe) beat the Birds United Football Club (Kroonvale) 6-1.
Masizakhe Academy Football Club beat Portugal Birds Football Club 3-0.
Birds United beat Future Stars in a penalty shootout 4-2 and Eleven Attackers Football Club 3-2 in the fixtures.

Finals

The final was played between Masizakhe Academy Football Club and Birds United Football Club. It was a dribbling game for the Birds.

The game started with Birds United scoring within ten minutes when Remanio "Maza" Lottering delivered a penalty kick and Paul Terelton Mathews scored the goal.

Academy came back aggressively and scored a goal within the second ten minutes to equalize the points and scored two goals within five minutes.

At halftime, Masizakhe Academy was leading five points to one. The second half saw Birds United challenging the young boys of the Academy and Mathews scored two more goals.

The goalkeeper of The Birds United, Jacquin Jaftha, had to work hard to defend and save goals as Academy challenged him to triple the scores. The Masizakhe Academy beat Birds United 8-4 and scoop the winning prize money of R2 600.

Paul Terelton Mathews, who scored two goals, said his team did not care about the loss, but just enjoyed the game. They know Masizakhe Academy is a fast team full of youngsters with dribbling skills, but that does not scare them.

Jacquin Jaftha of Birds United saves goal. Photos: Neco Bokwe