South Africa bullish at CAF schools football championships
Story by Raynald Ngwarati, Sports Reporter
THE CAF African Schools Football Championships came to an end at Gateway High School in Harare this Saturday as South Africa proved their dominance for the second year running.
South Africa, the winners of the inaugural tournament in the COSAFA region, won both the boys and the girls’ gold medals in the this year’s tournament.
South Africa were represented by Ubuntu Academy in the boys’ section and they beat Malawi to bag gold, while Edendale Technical High beat Botswana by three goals to one to clinch the championship on the girls’ side.
Meanwhile, the greatest takeaway from the tournament is the story of how hosts, Zimbabwe, were among the medal winners despite participating in the games for the first time.
Zimbabwe’s Under 15 boys football team beat Namibia by a solitary goal to clinch bronze.
Zimbabwe U-15 captain, Tadiwa Chakuchichi said, “We feel like we could’ve done better and won the gold. We could have woken up in the first game to beat Malawi and win the final game.”
“We worked hard, it wasn’t enough, but we could have done better. I’m proud of the squad we have and how far we’ve made it,” Zim U-15 player El Shaddai Sadomba said.
Another player, Darrel Zulu said, “We’ll clinch trophies because we’ve done our homework. Unfortunately in the opening match we underestimated Malawi because of their size and we lost, but going forward we’ll prove we’re the best.”
“We lost the first match but we managed to bounce back. So we put an effort together as a team and we’ll do better going forward,” said another player, Awakhile Tshalibe.
El Shaddai Sadomba, son to Warriors legend Edward Sadomba, won the Golden Boot award after being named joint top scorer along with South Africa’s Rhys Ferguson with six goals, whilst captain Tadiwa Chakuchichi proved his mettle with three man of the match awards in five matches for Zimbabwe.
