Blue Birds fly high in Respect Heritage Cup

Blue Birds Ladies soared high into the stars in the Respect and Ubuntu Heritage Cup final at the Alexandra Stadium on September 29 to beat a lacklustre Thina Seven Stars Ladies 2–0.
They were crowned champions of the women’s open section of the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association which has nine teams playing in the league and all participated in the tournament leading up to the cup final.

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From the word go, the Birds displayed exceptional football which enabled the Beautiful Birds of Alexandra to knock the ball around with precision and pinpoint passes, allowing the side to dictate the game right up to the final whistle.

The confidence they had with the ball allowed Lelethu Xabanisa to cross a beautiful grass cutter for Tshiamo Segwatle to tap it in but it outran her and drifted out of play.
Soon after, Koketso Mailwa opened the scoring for the Birds dribbling past a couple of defenders to unleash a powerful shot that shook the back of the net and left Thina keeper Veronica Ndlovu bamboozled as to what had just happened.

Enterprising right-winger Grace Chasowa could not latch onto a cross-ball that needed nothing more than a mere foot-touch to change its direction to the goals and the Birds would have been two goals up.

The Birds were again at their tricks, with Segwatle missing a brilliant scoring opportunity that found Ndlovu up to the task and easily collected the ball. But just before the halftime break, Xabanisa found the back of the net to make it two up for the Birds.

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Thina was a slightly rejuvenated side in the second half of the match but could not make that penetration into the dangerous area of the Birds. They found the defenders wide awake and thwarted every move they tried to make towards the goals.

One of the biggest downfalls of the Thina side was the lack of confidence on the ball. Instead of knocking the ball around from player to player, they tended to kick away the ball with no purpose or intention of giving it to a teammate.

In most instances, the ball fell to the feet of the opponents who then made good use of it and ran rings around the defenders and exploited the opportunities that availed to them.
Segwatle was up to her tricks again, when the ball landed at her feet but instead of tapping it in, she miss-kicked it and ballooned it over the crossbar with an open net at her mercy. The Birds settled for a 2–0 score line as the referee blew his whistle to signal full-time.

Besides being crowned champions, Birds players walked away with the various individual awards of the tournament. Goalkeeper Mathapelo Seeco was awarded Goalkeeper of the Tournament and Koketso Mailwa was named Player of the Tournament and also received the Shosholoza soccer boots. Dimpho Maepa was named Most Promising Player of the Tournament while Lelethu Xabanisa was the Top Goal Scorer of the Tournament.

Meanwhile, in the Alex Masters Soccer League (AMSL) Chivas was awarded the bronze medal after beating Herdbouys 3–0 for third place and Alex Royal Tigers beat Alex Winter Roses 5–0 in the U15 division to be crowned champions. In the U17 division, Malandela Mighty Heroes were tied 3–3 with Alex Winter Roses, with Roses being crowned champions after winning a penalty shootout. In the final of the AMSL section, Five Special was crowned champions after beating Asazi Bafana 2–1.

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