Madibaz ready for Varsity Challenge semifinals

THE NMMU Madibaz men's senior soccer side will play against Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in the semifinals of the inaugural Varsity Football Challenge in Pretoria on Monday.

Madibaz finished the group stages of the tournament unbeaten in fourth place on the log table. Only the top four teams qualified for the knockout stages of the tournament, with the winners contesting the final to determine the first Varsity Football Challenge champion a week later.

Madibaz and the log leaders TUT maintained their undefeated record throughout the round-robin phase, with the University of Pretoria in second position and North West University in third.

The football challenge is the latest addition to the popular Varsity Sports initiative which follows the massive success of other varsity games (athletics, hockey, sevens rugby and beach volleyball).

This will be the second encounter between the two teams after they played to a 2-2 draw in their group-stage encounter in Port Elizabeth last month.

Madibaz team manager Mark Tommy said the game against TUT would be a final before the final.

"We are happy with the draw but our aim was to play against them in the final.

"Both teams have a lot to prove considering that we scored a spectacular last-minute goal against them to level the score in our last game."

Tommy said the TUT side would not be comfortable at their home stadium if they reflected on the hard work they had to put in to secure a draw when they came to Port Elizabeth.

"We gave them a tough time when they were here and now that we will be playing against them again in the knockout stages, the Madibaz team are working towards beating them."