Picture: Lonwabo Marele
The Coke Cup – Safa Cape Town’s flagship tournament – is played over senior men’s, senior women’s and boys’ under-18 divisions. This year’s tournament, which saw more than 500 clubs from across the city taking part, kicked off a few months ago. The competition has now reached business end, and the teams are getting closer to the final, and even winning their respective divisions.This weekend’s action didn’t disappoint either as there were a number of entertaining matchups.
Defending senior men’s division champions Rygersdal FC had a mixed bag of results on the day. Their first team’s defence of the title they won last year when they beat Hanover Park in the final, is still on track, as they beat Premier FC, also from Hanover Park, 2-0.
Their under-18 side, however, could not emulate their “big brothers”, when they lost 4-2 on penalties against Khayelitsha’s Ulana Academy, following a goalless draw at full time.
Rygersdal’s under-18 coach Rory Simpson said despite the loss, his players did everything they could, in an attempt to win that match. They were, at the end of the day, just unlucky.
“It was a good game where both sides played an attacking and attractive brand of football. As the scoreline, at full time, suggests, the sides were evenly matched, and no one really dominated.
“That is why the match had to be decided on penalties, which was always going to be difficult, and I have to say the Ulana keeper was on top of his game, he did well,” said Simpson.
In one of the women’s division matches played at Grassy Park, home side Milano United went down 3-1 against last year’s finalists RV United.
The Khayelitsha side has proved over the years, to be one of the best women’s sides around, reaching the final regularly.
In other action, UCT produced an almost flawless display to beat Hout Bay United 4-0. UCT coach Ahmed Parker, however, was adamant that the Hout Bay side was not as bad as the scoreline suggests. He would not be drawn to comment on the difference between the two sides.
He did, however, point out that the fact that their opponents were a closed book, made things even more difficult for them.
“Hout Bay got recently promoted and we did not know much about them. That made things difficult for us. I am happy that we were able to take the chances that came our way, at the end of the day,” he said.
The coach also acknowledged that, as the tournament has now reached business end, things are going to be even tougher, which meant there was no room for error.
“We are playing Santos, and that is a side that we know very well. We have played against them a couple of times, so we know what to expect,” he said.
In other action, Norway Parks’ run in the competition came to an end when they lost 3-1 against Belhar Spurs.