Third year, third tournament, third silver for Colville FC
KIMBERLEY’S Colville Football Club narrowly missed out on the gold medal position in a tense, high-scoring, sudden-death penalty shoot-out against Bloemfontein’s Cairo Legends in the final of a four-team tournament held in Eldorado Park recently.
The annual tournament that originally started back in 2016 when four teams got together in Kimberley. The teams, Colville FC (from Kimberley), Cairo Legends (Bloemfontein) and Eldorado Park and Soweto Legends (Gauteng) then decided to make the tournament an annual affair.
The tournament moved to Bloemfontein last year, this year it was staged in Eldorado Park south of Johannesburg, and next year it will be hosted in Soweto, before eventually circling back to Kimberley in 2020,
In this year’s final Colville and Cairo Legends ended regulation time in a goalless draw. The ensuing penalty shoot-out saw the teams level at 5-all after the first round. Then it was on to a tense sudden death shoot-out where Cairo narrowly won 10-9.
Cairo Legends took the trophy and the gold medals, while Colville received the silver medals, with Soweto Legends coming in third for the bronze. The hosts were left empty-handed.
This is the third time in a row that Colville have been runners-up and according to a Colville FC official, Cassie Calvert, the team should have done better.
“The team have not yet brought home the silverware in the last three years, only silver medals,” a disappointed Calvert said.
However, Colville did have something to cheer about, when one of their players, Morris Seekoei, was awarded the Player of the Tournament trophy, while two of Bloemfontein’s Cairo Legends, Noel Busdy and Kent Williams, walked off with best goalkeeper and the most disciplined player awards respectively.
Despite missing out on any medals Eldorado Park organiser and Safa member, Mark van Wyk said that he was extremely pleased that the tournament went off so smoothly.
RESULTS FROM OTHER MATCHES
Colville 4-2 Soweto
El Dorado Park 0-3 Cairo Legends.