Will FC Basel succeed in lifting the Vhuthu Fridge trophy?

The second batch of the last-16-round matches of the Vhuthu Mobile Fridge Soccer Tournament will be played at the Gondeni Stadium on Saturday. The tournament was officially launched during a ceremony held at the Gavhi Car Was in Gondeni on Friday, 29 September, and the first matches took place the past weekend.

Sixteen teams from Gondeni and the surrounding villages have entered for the tournament. Saturday’s programme will be opened by the match between Tshififi Development and Mukoma All Stars, which starts at 09:00. Mukoma All Stars are geared to kill after the team had obtained the third position in the NR Makhadi Soccer Challenge at the same venue last Saturday.

Mighty Super Power and Mbahe Freedom Rebels will test each other’s strength in the second fixture, which is scheduled to start at 11:00, to be followed by the match between Tshamutilikwa Fire Boys and Muraga Hazard Hotspurs.

Fire Boys will be lucky if they manage to beat Hotspurs and secure a place in the quarter-final round. Hotspurs are still in a joyous mood after they had managed to reach the final of the NR Makhadi Soccer Challenge last Saturday. They were crushed 4-0 by FC Basel in the final.

After lifting the NR Makhadi trophy, FC Basel will have a mountain to climb on Saturday. They will meet Banyini Flying Swallows in the last fixture of the day.

The toss for the quarter-final round matches will be conducted at the stadium after the match between Basel and Flying Swallows. The quarter-final matches will be played on Sunday, while the semi-final and final matches are expected to be played next Saturday, 21 October.

Date:13 October 2023

By: Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990.  He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

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