Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association squads won three of their games and drew one against Linksfield-based Alex Black Aces Academy during a tournament played at the Number 3 Square Grounds over the weekend.
The U13 match was a drawn affair in an eight-goal thriller. Aces won the U20 match 3–2, while Alex’s U15s and U17s won their games 3–2 and 3–1 respectively.
One of the thrillers of the tournament was the match involving the U15s in which the Alex squad came back from two goals down to steal victory from Aces. The teams had gone into halftime Aces leading 2–1. A determined Aces, who seemed to want to kill the match early, opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Abdullah Moosa curled the ball past the Alex keeper and into the top right-hand corner. A strike from an awkward angle from Aces’ Filipe Pedra in the 11th minute hit the side netting. It was not long before Tiago Nunens made it two for Aces in 15th minute from a brilliant free kick outside the box.
Alex Real Madrid’s Nkonsenhle Mavuso had a good opportunity five minutes before halftime to pull one back for his side from a free kick outside the box, but his strike was headed away by Nunens.
In the dying minutes of the first half, Alex managed to pull one back via an own goal by one of the Aces defenders.
Alex came back determined in the second half to snatch victory as they piled on the pressure on the Aces defence, and United Stars’ Tiro Jele put his side back in the game to make it 2–2.
Another United Stars player, Siyanda Mhlongo, grabbed the winner in the dying minutes of the game.
Aces coach Nick Bamboulis said he was proud of the performance by his side, considering they had brought their U14 side for the match.
In the U17 match, the Alex squad triumphed 3–1 over Aces, with one of the most exciting players in the Alex League, Sithuli Zulu netting a brace after an equally talented Katlego ‘KG’ Botopela, a Realogile High School boy, opened the scoring in the13th minute.
Aces’ Shane Silverman reduced the goal deficit with a brilliant header that left the Alex keeper at sixes and sevens. Had it not been for poor finishing, Alex’s Maropeng Sekgobela and Ntshole Nyithana could have increased their side’s tally of goals to five.
Aces’ Korban Jacobs could have also done the same for his side too, if his first shot and a follow-up attempt both hit the crossbar.
Read: Aces on a mission to develop Alex football
