Haggai Combined Private School's Under-12 soccer team, with Mr Justice Matloga as their coach, has won another title, this time as the provincial champions of the Danone Nations Cup.
Haggai, from Thohoyandou, won the title at the provincial finals at Hoërskool Noorderland in Polokwane last weekend. The final game between Haggai and Kgwatlele was called off because of bad weather, but Haggai were declared the champions because they finished on top of the log in the round-robin phase.
Matloga was the coach at Benny's Sport Academy and Development when the school first opened, and during his stay there, the school won many trophies. He said that winning the title this year was very special for him and his team. He joined them in 2015 and this was the first time that the players had played in a tournament of this size and he was concerned about how they would handle the pressure. "The team started off really slowly and I thought they wouldn't manage against other schools that had many years of experience in the Danone Nations Cup," he said.
He added that there was plenty of work ahead of the team before the national finals in August. "We need to concentrate on the defence, as we made mistakes in the provincial finals that could cost us a chance of winning the national cup," he said.
The results of all the matches are: Megoring 1, Katang 0; Kgwatlele 1, Thapola-A-Nkona 0; Haggai 2, Katang 0; Kgwatlele 4, Megoring 1; Haggai 3, Thapola-A-Nkona 2 (penalties); Kgwatlele 3, Katang 1 (penalties); Thapola-A-Nkona 2, Megoring 0 (penalties); Haggai 2, Kgwatlele 1; Thapola-A-Nkona 1, Katang 0 and Haggai 3, Megoring 0.