Fuad Esack
A reasonable crowd of a few hundred turned up at the Westridge sports complex in Mitchell’s Plain at the weekend to watch teams battle for a spot in this year’s Coke Cup finals. Unlike the previous round when rain wreaked havoc across the city, resulting in a number of matches being called off, this past weekend’s weather played along nicely. If Sunday’s contests are anything to go by, soccer fans are in for a treat come cup final day in two week’s time.
In the women’s division, Heideveld Female Football Academy (HFFA) secured their place in the finals with a hard-fought 3-2 victory against Shosholoza FC.
Established in 2015 and affiliated to Heideveld Local Football Association (LFA), the academy has established a reputation as formidable opponents in various leagues and divisions, including the provincial Sasol League, Safa Cape Town’s Regional Development League and Cape Town Tygerberg’s under-16 Premier League.
Happy with the result, chairman Yushrie Solomons says for them it’s more than just developing soccer skills at the academy.
“We are deeply invested in the development of the individual, focusing on off the field personal development and using football as a vehicle. We aim to inspire youth to overcome their circumstances by focusing on education and sport as parallels to each other. We are not just a football club… we are a family at HFFA,” he said.
“We have a good combination of dedicated coaches, executive members and parents who selflessly give up time to make the dreams of our girls a reality. Our under-16 team went all the way to the Cape Town Tygerberg LFA knockout final, losing narrowly to Hellenic, our development team is still well in the hunt for promotion to the Regional Women’s League, and our Sasol team at the end of the season came undone to lose out on a playoff place by small margins… all this with no training facility or equipment,” he said.
“All year long we had no goal practice as we trained on an open field under a street light, but our girls never used these obstacles to make excuses for not showing up. We also proudly had Ashne Combrinck elected as the LFA vice-president and then went on to serve on the Safa Cape Town women’s committee. These are big steps in the right direction for us and we will remain relentless in our pursuit to affect as many lives positively as we humanly can.
“Getting to the finals is a milestone in itself; winning it will be the cherry on top,” he said. “Like all competitions, the road to the finals is never easy for any of the qualifying teams, especially in this competition played at venues across the city.
“What a journey it has been,” he said .”When we looked at the grid leading up to the final, we knew we had our work cut out for us, as the teams left on that side of the grid were of the highest quality and pedigree. Spurs, Hout Bay, Heroes, UWC and Shosholoza, are three-time finalists and in UWC and Hout Bay are two clubs with easily the best resources available to their players,” Solomons said.
“In the round of 16 we came up against a very organised Hout Bay side but we took our chances well and came out 3-1 winners on the day. The quarter-final was against our season long rivals, Dangerous Heroes, a side that knocked us out last in year’s the round of 32.
“We were determined to overcome this hurdle as they just days earlier snatched the league title from us,” he said.
And, as expected, things did not get any easier in the quarter-finals played in rainy conditions a fortnight ago at the Dunoon sports complex. “We went to Dunoon with confidence and nothing but victory in our minds. The conditions were tough on the day. However, we completely dominated as we ran away 2-0 winners and then we marched into the semi-final,” he said.
Sunday’s semi-final was always going to be a tough task, as the academy’s young side geared up to face an equally determined Shosholoza, last year’s runners-up in this competition..
“At this stage of the competition it’s always mind over matter,” said Solomons, “and we showed great resilience as we clawed our way back twice after going behind.”
He said the idea was to remain calm and to focus on their style of play.
“We smothered the midfield to restrict their ball players and demanded that we be first on the ball so we could transition swiftly as we have a speedy front four. Our experienced defensive line was caught out twice which led to us conceding but our fighting spirit got us over the line,” he said.
After going behind within five minutes, HFFA were handed a lifeline at the quarter-hour mark when Kelsy George was brought down. Clemmeney Ede stepped up and slotted the equaliser, Shosholoza went ahead once more with a deflected free kick with 20 minutes to go before the break, but were unable to capitalise on their lead as HFFA refused to give them complete control. After persistent attacking, Kulsum Harliem banged home a loose ball to make matters even before the break.
“In the second half, we came out firing, we created waves of chances and eventually Taylor Claasen forcefully ran the ball into the net… 3-2 final score,” said Solomons.
• In other semi-final action, Santos FC’s women’s side went down 3-1 against UCT after leading 1-0 at some point. Although disappointed with the outcome, coach Suhayl Allie, one of two coaches involved with the side, said he’s immensely proud of the team’s effort. Like fellow semi-finalist HFFA, Santos also has its roots in Heideveld and is one of the few clubs in the city to have established a women’s team since its induction in the Western Cape, Allie said.
Of course, the club have always been at the forefront of developing the women’s game with its women’s tournament a regular feature on the Cape soccer calendar in years gone by.
“I’m very happy to have a bunch of players who will fight until the end,” Allie said. “We scored a wonder goal by Courtney Smart which generally happens in cup football. However, we conceded goals where UCT played to their strength of speed up front and on the wings. I feel we weren’t alert enough on goal 2 and 3 but to come this far with the girls is amazing, considering that we had to play three games in five days with one of them less than 12 hours the night before against that very same UCT side,” he said.
UCT will face HFFA in the finals on Saturday October 15.
In the boys’ under-18 division Cape Town City beat Grassy Park United 4-2 and Ubuntu bea Woodlands United 2-1.
In the men’s division’s Clover beat Seaside Spurs 5-4 on penalties and Diadora beat Bishop Lavis 3-2.