Soccer crown goes to PE Sundowns
[caption id="attachment_38496" align="alignright" width="405"] AIMING HIGH: St George's defender Iam Broek (in blue) gets up high against Litha Dlula of PE Sundowns (in white) in the Under-17 final. Picture: MIKE HOLMES[/caption]
PE Sundowns were crowned the 11th Engen Under-17 soccer champions yesterday when they beat St George's 1-0 in the final played at the Errol Heynes Field in Gelvandale.
Sixteen teams from across the metro, including one from Thornhill, battled it out for the ultimate prize of being crowned the first ever Engen Champion of Champions in Gauteng later this year.
And the cherry on the top for the youngster voted player of the tournament at the Champs of Champs will be a trip to England to try out with one of the top English Premier League teams.
Over the weekend the 16 teams were divided into four groups and played a round robin before the knockout stage.
On their way to the final Sundowns finished at the top of Group B and survived two heart-stopping penalty shootouts in the knockout stage.
In the quarterfinals they beat hosts Glenville 6-5 in a sudden-death shoutout after being 0-0 at the end of regulation time. In the semis they edged out Hotspurs 5-4 on penalties after being 1-1.
On their way to the finals St George's, who finished second in Group B, beat City Lads and Zwide Pirates, both 1-0.
The quarterfinal defeat was a huge disappointment for Lads who had never finished below the semifinals since the inception of the tournament 11 years ago.
In the finals an early strike by Zusake Sale was enough to earn Sundowns the right to represent the Eastern Cape in the national Champions of Champions competition. However, St George's did not go down without a fight and were unlucky not to force the game into extra-time at least.
In the play-offs for third place Hotspurs again lost on penalties, going down 5-4 to Zwide Pirates after being 0-0.
Sundowns goalkeeper Sive Gqezengle won both the goalkeeper of the tournament and player of the tournament awards.
The results were:
Final: St George's 0 PE Sundowns 1; semifinals: St George's 1 Zwide Pirates 1, PE Sundowns 5 (0) Hotspurs 4 (0); quarterfinals: City Lads 0 St George's 1, PE Sundowns 6 (0) Glenville 5 (0).
Special awards, top goalscorer: Mvelo Siwa (City Lads); goalkeeper of the tournament: Sive Gqezengele (PE Sundowns); best defender: Nathaniel Rensburg (Hotspurs); best striker: Bandile Skosana (St George's); best midfielder: Sachin Philander (Glenville); player of the tournament: Sive Gqezengele (PE Sundowns); coach of the tournament Masixole Matyu (PE Sundowns); team of the tournament: Area Q (Walmer) - Mogan Segadavan
