Classy SA u21 Men claim Junior Africa Cup gold
Aggressive, dominant, and ruthless are three words that can be used to describe the South Africa Men’s u21 side after they thumped Namibia 5-0 in the final of the Junior Africa Cup, in Windhoek, on Friday night.
South Africa breezed through the pool stages and maintained their unbeaten run by coming out on top in the final, too.
They were clinical from the outset, accurate in front of goal, and barely conceded, not that they had to do a lot of defending.
Under the guidance of head coach Guy Elliott, the SA boys kicked off their campaign with lopsided victories against Zambia (12-3) and Namibia (8-0).
Those were followed by a 7-1 thumping of Zimbabwe, which secured South Africa a place at the FIH Junior Men’s World Cup, which takes place in Chennai and Madurai, India, later this year.
Not even South Africa’s traditional African rivals, Egypt, could slow down Elliott’s charges, with SA cruising to a 5-0 win. It was a different story against Kenya, with South Africa scoring only a 2-1 victory. By then, they had already secured a place in the final against the hosts.
With the title on the line, it was one-way traffic at the Davin Trustco Hockey Stadium as South Africa ran rampant against the hosts.
They dominated the opening chukka and opened the scoring after some slick interplay between Carlon Mentoor and Reuben Sendzul, with the former Paul Roos Gimnasium captain converting to make it 1-0.
With two minutes remaining in the chukka, former Jeppe High School for Boys stalwart Jaydon Brooker converted from the top of the D to make it 2-0.
The South Africans continued to pile on the pressure in the third chukka, making a whopping nine circle entries.
Out of those, they converted only one, but it was that man, Brooker, again, who scored a thunderbolt of a drag flick to make it 3-0 at the halfway point.
The message at halftime was simple from coach Elliot and his staff, and that was to continue outworking and outsmarting their opponents.
That’s exactly what they did, controlling the tempo of the game, and they were rewarded with a successful PC flick from former Clifton College captain Ross Montgomery, who finally got onto the scoresheet after numerous attempts.
The boys in green and gold completed the drubbing in the final chukka.
Wynberg Boys’ High product Viwe Mbatha created space in the circle, where he received the ball and tapped in for a simple finish, which made the final score 5-0.
South Africa completed the tournament having scored an impressive 41 goals while conceding only five.
Dan Dillion was named Goalkeeper of the Tournament, while Brooker was both the Top Goal Scorer and Player of the Tournament.
RESULTS
South Africa 12-3 Zambia
South Africa 8-0 Namibia
South Africa 7-1 Zimbabwe
South Africa 5-0 Egypt
South Africa 2-1 Kenya
South Africa 5-0 Namibia
