Benoni football in great shape
The annual two-day regional tournament also featured teams from North Rand FA and the Pretoria FA,and was contested in all junior age groups from under-10 to colts as well as a women’s tournament.
The Easterns Local Football Association (ELFA) Colts team retained the LFA Inter-Districts title at Trezona Park in Florida last weekend.
The defending champions, coached by Len van Rooyen (Benoni Northerns), beat pre-tournament favourites Cosmo City LFA 2-1 in the final after emerging unbeaten from their prior group matches.
Their road to the final included a narrow 1-0 victory over the strong Southern LFA team, and a win over hosts Rand Central LFA, by the same margin.
Although the selection net was cast across the entire Ekurhuleni region under the ELFA mantle in a series of trials, barring injuries and unavailability, all the players in the 16-man squad are from Benoni clubs (10 Benoni Northerns, two Old Benonians and four Benfica).
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“This is a huge feather in our cap and indicative of the immense strength of football in Benoni,” commented ecstatic team manager Enrique Juanas-Uriol, who is also integrally involved with the Benoni Northerns reserve team.
The Van Rooyen-Juanas-Urial duo was instrumental in steering the Northerns reserves to second place behind winners Robertsham this season, and also guided them into the Reserve League Cup Final.
“The coaching staff are super-chuffed. As evidenced by the fact we won all our group games by a single goal, one could see it was a really tough tournament. The boys came to the party and made it happen. It bodes really well for the future of Benoni senior football,” added the manager.
The ELFA under-12’s also won their age group title.
