Southern Gauteng A seeks to end 14-year title drought
Southern Gauteng A edged out their counterparts Southern Gauteng B 2-0 in a thrilling semifinal on Thursday in Bloemfontein to book their ticket to the final of the SASHOC National Week.
They will duel with Northern Gauteng A for the Sandra Jordaan Trophy at 09:55 on Friday morning.
Incredibly, given their rich history, Southerns last won the title in 2010, but they have high hopes of bringing an end to that title drought.
Catch the final live on SuperSport Schools
Many of the players in the Southern Gauteng A team were part of the u16 side that reached the final of that age group’s inter-provincial tournament last year. They hope to put the experience they gained from that campaign to good use and to go one better than in 2023.
While the scoreline gives an illusion of a comfortable win, given that Southern Gauteng A had a two-goal cushion when the match ended, the reality on the University of the Free State Astro was different.
Lance Louw‘s Southern Gauteng B fought fire with fire and enjoyed as much possession as their opponents. The contest was so close that Natasha Le Roux’s side scored their first goal with only four minutes of the third chukka remaining.
“If you play against Wits, on any given day it’s going to be a tough day. There were moments in that match where either team could have taken it,” the Southern Gauteng A coach reckoned.
While spectators and other teams might have looked at Southern Gauteng B as a lesser side due to its B team status, Le Roux and her charges refused to be complacent. “We haven’t called them a B side the entire week, and our entire team talk was around the fact that we cannot underestimate them, even if they carry the B side label. If they were a true B side, they wouldn’t have played the way they played today,” she said.
Not only did Southern Gauteng B match their opposition’s work rate, but they also found ways to work around the plans the Reabitswe Phume-captained side had.
“We know every player in their team, and we sort of had our expectations on what they were going to do, and they hit us with something very unexpected. It was a tough game but very enjoyable,” Amber Fairon beamed after the semifinal clash.
Southern Gauteng A’s fortunes turned in the third chukka, thanks to a halftime team talk that brought about a change in their approach. Le Roux, firstly, asked her charges not to be outworked by their opponents. Their work rate off the ball was not as high as she would have wanted it to be. They were working hard, but they ran the risk of being outworked by Southern Gauteng B.
“We also changed the press a little bit, which created a bit more time for our strikers to set up a shape that we wanted. Luckily, it worked out and we got our first goal,” Le Roux said.
Transformed, Southern Gauteng A made a breakthrough via Hannah Quinton, who opened the scoring for her side in the 41st minute. Although Le Roux’s side does not boast a high penalty corner conversion rate in the tournament, when they have been successful, Quinton has been one of the players to find success at the set piece. Her goal against Wits was her third of the tournament.
Instead of being deflated by conceding, Southern Gauteng B appeared reinvigorated as they hunted for an equaliser. To put the contest to bed, Southerns’ A needed a second goal. It took them 19 minutes to create it.
Fairon is Southern Gauteng A’s leading goal scorer, with four to her name. She scored her first goal of the tournament in the first match her team played against Boland; a last-minute strike helped her side register a convincing 3-0 win over Northern Gauteng A. She followed that up with two goals in their fourth match, a 4-0 win over Western Province B. However, she counted her final-minute strike against Southern Gauteng B as her best of the tournament.
“I love scoring, but I haven’t been scoring as much as I would love to this whole tournament, so getting that second goal was a weight off my chest,” she admitted. “It was all the more important for me that the goal came in the semifinal against a tough side. I love that goal!”
While Southern Gauteng A convincingly won their game against Northerns on the first day of the tournament, Sunday, they’re highly motivated to do the double over their neighbours.
Coach, captain, and the rest of the squad all acknowledge that beating a team twice in a single tournament is not easy. They will be pulling out all the stops in the final to do that and to take possession of the trophy.
