Day 3| Stalemates galore as teams hunt semi-final spots in Bloemfontein
Five teams will enter day four of the SASHOC National Week in Bloemfontein still in search of their first wins with three days of the tournament already played.
Eastern Province, Border, KZN Inland A, Western Province B, and the hosts, Southern Free State, all have yet to place a tick in the win column.
The tournament, being played at the University of Free State, is nearing its business end, and by the end of day four the semifinal places will be decided.
Competition has been extremely tight, and it’s fair to say that the five aforementioned teams have had their share of challenges.
In Pool A, Border has lost three of its four matches, and they have only one point, which came from a 1-1 draw with Western Province B on the opening day.
Since then, they’ve lost 0-9 against Western Province A in a one-sided match on Monday. Then, on Tuesday, they were beaten 3-1 by KZN Coastal B.
Western Province B have misfired in front of goal this week. After a 1-3 loss against Boland, WP B has since racked up three draws, and that has left them second from bottom in the pool.
Finishing has let the side from Cape Town down, and they face a tall order on Wednesday when they take on the unbeaten pool leaders, Western Province A.
Pool B is where the drama is unfolding in the tournament, with a wide number of permutations making the final pool positions muddy heading into the last day of pool action.
Eastern Province, KZN Inland A, KZN Coastal A, and Southern Free State A, all still have a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals, but they will need some other results within the group to go their way.
EP will rue their missed opportunities, which has kept them winless after they had played themselves into positions from which they could’ve sealed victories. In their four matches, they’ve drawn three and lost one, scoring eight goals.
On Tuesday, though, they escaped a seemingly certain defeat with one of the best comebacks of the tournament so far.
They trailed 0-3 against KZN Inland and went into halftime 1-3 behind. However, coach Lyall Meyer’s charges showed great fight to work their way back to 3-3 draw. They could have clinched a win right on the final whistle, but Luke Tait‘s shot passed wide of the goal.
On Wednesday, they will face a Southern Free State team which has also been kept winless.
“That’s three games we feel we should’ve won,” said Meyer after the draw with KZN Inland. “Unfortunately, at a tournament like this, three draws won’t cut it.
“It was a good comeback (today), and I must give credit to the players for the effort and character they showed, but there were a couple of big moments that could’ve sealed the three points for us.
“Going forward, we have to control what we can control, which is the game against Free State. We have to win. We have to get three points, or else we’re playing in the bottom section of the tournament.
“Whatever happens in the other pool matches is out of our control,” he added.
Southern Free State, led by coach Wayne Coetzee, is also under pressure after a lukewarm showing thus far.
The hosts are yet to hit their stride, and, despite the backing of the home crowd, they’ve found goal scoring to be a massive issue.
On Tuesday, they played to a goalless draw on against a gritty Northern Gauteng side. That result has the Free Staters near the wrong end of Pool B, with two points from three matches.
On Wednesday, though, Coetzee’s team has two matches, against Eastern Province and KZN Inland A. Coetzee said his side will need to score if they intend on winning them.
“I think our boys have gone toe-to-toe with the best in the country,” he told SuperSport Schools Plus after the Northerns’ encounter.
“We are fairly happy but also disappointed by the fact that we are drawing, and there are a lot of opportunities out there that we’re leaving begging.
“A double-header day helps because we can see what everyone else has done and take it from there. We can change the whole pool, but in order to do that we have to score goals. That’s our main priority at this point,” he ended.
Meanwhile, KZN Coastal A side might consider themselves unlucky after coach Cam Mackay‘s troops let slip a 4-2 lead over Southern Gauteng A on Tuesday.
Coastal scored all of their goals in the first half, but they found themselves under pressure in the second stanza. Goals from Devin Wax and Matt Eichweber pulled Southerns level.
“The game was very frustrating. I won’t say much about the game but the performance from the guys was really good,” Mackay told SuperSport Schools Plus after the match.
During the Southerns’ comeback, Coastal received two cards, a yellow for Lumi Matwele and a green for Ruben Peters.
“Unfortunately, the card changed the momentum of the game. We were under the pump more in the second half, but I think, in the first half, we created a lot of chances,” Mackay added.
“We’ll take the positives. I think we played well but lacked in the final product. Now we have to rely on the final game, something we didn’t want, but we’ll go out there and play our best.”
Day 3| Results and Scorers
Pool A
Western Province 2 (1) B: Ethan Daniels (2). Southern Gauteng B 2 (1): Matteo Stipcevich, Tristan Fredericks.
Western Province A 5 (4): Jordan Paulsen (2), Joshua Mettler, Joe Gitlin, Dayle Gertson. Boland A 0.
KZN Coastal B 3 (2): Seth Simpson (2), Mbuso Qwabe. Border A 0.
Western Province A 4 (1): Litha Kraai, Jordan Paulsen, Joshua Le Roux, Cohen Williams. KZN Coastal B 1 (1): Sibusiso Cele.
Boland A 3 (4): LD Nel (2), Reuben Sendzul, Michael Du Toit. Southern Gauteng B 1 (0): Murray Halstead-Cleak
Pool B
KZN Inland A 3 (3): Grant Bridgeford (2), Masud Dakile. Eastern Province A 1 (3): Zack Willimott (2), Kian Cambier.
Northern Gauteng A 0. Southern Free State A 0.
Southern Gauteng A 4 (2): Juan Martin, Tyler-Reed Napier, Devin Wax, Matt Eichweber. KZN Coastal A 4 (4): Lethabo Mathobela, Matthew de Oliveira, Lethabo Bogacwi, Lumi Matwele.
Results| Section B
Pool X:
Boland B 2-0 KZN Inland B
Southern Free State B 1-0 Eastern Province B
Mpumalanga 3-1 North West
Pool Y:
Northern Gauteng B 4-0 Eden
Northern Cape 2-2 Northern Free State
Eastern Gauteng 5-0 Limpopo
Northern Cape 1-0 Eden
Day 4| Fixtures
Pool A
11:35 – Boland A vs KZN Coastal B
13:00 – Border A vs Southern Gauteng B
14:25 – Western Province A vs Western Province B
Pool B
08:45 – Southern Gauteng A vs KZN Inland A
10:10 – Southern Free State A vs Eastern Province A
15:50 – KZN Coastal A vs Northern Gauteng A
17:15 – KZN Inland A vs Southern Free State A
