More than a tournament, it's a festival says Unity Cup organisers

Goals galore was the order of the day at the under-10 and under-12 Unity Cup soccer tournament, hosted by Greenwood Athletic AFC, at the Solo Street sportsfield, in Steenberg, at the weekend.

With 64 teams and just over 900 players registered for the tournament, the field was buzzing with nervous excitement and highly competitive football on display. Junior squads from across the city, including Hout Bay, Milnerton, Mitchell's Plain, Langa, Khayelitsha, Lavender Hill, Kommetjie and even as far afield as the North West province, took part in the tournament.

With almost 500 goals scored during the fifth edition of the three-day soccer festival, the youngsters were certainly not shy to bang ém in the back of the net.

The ever-impressive Ubuntu Football Academy, from Masiphumele, near Fish Hoek, walked away overall winners, beating Hellenic FC 3-1 and 2-0  in the under-10 and under-12 finals.

Ubuntu was on fire throughout the competition, with 47 and 22 goals in the under-10 and under-12 competitions. Hellenic’s Blake du Plessis top-scored in the under-10 section, with 19 goals to his name. Clubmate Zaydin Julius was the top scorer in the under-12 division, an accolade shared with six other players in the same division.

Local lads FC Cafda were equally impressive, beating Kommetjie’s Rising Stars 2-1 in the under-10 quarter-final after leading 1-0 before Stars pulled one back. Thiago Meyer sealed the deal for Cafda when slotting home a penalty late in the game, to help his side advance to the semi-finals against an in-form Ubuntu, who beat them 3-0.

In other action, Ashford Athletic faced off against Strandfontein AFC in their under-10 quarter-final, with the boys from the bridge securing a 1-0 win courtesy of Levi Thebus, to set up a semi-final fixture against Hellenic. Although the result  did not go their way, Ashford did not walk away empty-handed, as they were named Fair Play team-of-the-tournament, much to the delight of the team coaches Fabian Cozett and Raglan Hendrickse, club chairman.

“We are immensely proud of the boys for representing the community club with passion and discipline. The future is bright for the talented boys from the bridge,” said Hendricks.

Greenwood Youth Chairman and tournament convenor, Raymond Brickles and his organising committee can afford to give themselves a pat on the back on staging a well-organised event. 

“Even though it is called a tournament, it really serves as a festival,” said Brickles. “We just want kids to play and form friendships that could last a lifetime.” 

Brickles believes juniors should be the focus point of any club which plans to be around for a long time, as they are the future of the sport, he said.

However, pulling off a huge event such as this, he says, requires pin-point planning and execution. 

“Thankfully It gets easier every year, but the key is to have a team that works together well, a team where every member is responsible for his or her tasks and does it effectively,” he said, thanking all role stakeholders who helped to make the tournament a success.

“The support of the City is vital in executing a successful tournament,” said Brickles. “We did not have a title sponsor again this year. We have an awesome technical sponsor in terms of Vecchio who has been amazing over the past few years. A new addition to the Unity Cup, which is essential to be efficient and up to date with fixtures, results and stats is the guys from Just Scored,” he said, referring to an app that assists with capturing results and providing live updates on any Android device.

“For me it’s all about the excitement from other clubs to participate,” said Brickles. For some clubs it has become a "must enter" as some of them have been part of it since the beginning. Mafikeng has entered for the third time,” he said.

“My message to all of them is a resounding, “thank you”. Without all of them there would not be a Unity Cup.”