Reigning Copa Coca-Cola champions Clapham High School successfully defended their Gauteng Copa Coca-Cola provincial title on August 4. The Kagiso Stadium, situated West of Johannesburg, allowed for fans to witness the arch-rivalry between Transnet School of Excellence and Clapham, both playing the final.
The scintillating game ended in an evenly balanced 0-0, prompting the two evenly matched teams to battle it out on penalty kicks. This saw the reigning champions have an upper hand and marshalled their way to victory through a 4-2 penalty shoot-out.
Clapham made their intentions clear in their opening encounter against Johannesburg Secondary School, outplaying them and winning by a convincing 3-0 margin. The school continued their dominance by easily brushing aside Esokwazi High School by a 4-0 margin in their second match.
The Gauteng defending champions had General Smuts High School as their last Group A match which they easily overcame with a 2-0 victory to set up a repeat of last year’s Copa Coca-Cola Gauteng Provincial Play-Off final against Transnet School of Excellence. Their opening encounter was a tough one against former champions Rosina Sedibane Modiba Sport School as they edged the Tshwane based school 1-0. The school continued to gain momentum when they followed up with a 2-0 victory over Vezukhono Secondary School, while their 0-0 draw against Lukhanyo Secondary School was enough to see them through to the final.
Both Clapham and the Transnet School of Excellence showed tactical awareness with the game being a pound to pound type of game with both schools finding it difficult to find the back of the net for 90 minutes of football. The game had to be decided on penalty kicks, which saw Clapham prevail as the Gauteng champions with a 4-2 victory over their arch-rivals. The victory by Clapham books them a spot at the Copa Coca-Cola national championships final as the 4th provincial team to partake in the final scheduled to take place in Port Elizabeth on September 26-29.
As an addition to this year’s Copa Coca-Cola tournament, Coca-Cola launched its Copa Coca-Cola Future Stars search. The future stars project seeks to handpick talented players with potential and that will be done by Copa Coca-Cola ambassador, Jabu ‘Shuffle’ Mahlangu.
Mahlangu, alongside a team of talent scouts comprising of former players Simba Marumo, Vela Khumalo (SA u-17 assistant coach) and Jabulani Mendu, will handpick the talented players who will have an opportunity to be part of a unique training camp scheduled to take place at the High-Performance Centre in Tshwane later this year.
The next stop for the tournament will be on August 11 at the Copa Coca-Cola North West Provincial Play-Offs at the Alabama Stadium in Klerksdorp where Mahlangu and scouts will be to identify more players for the Copa Coca-Cola Future Stars camp.
“As expected, the Gauteng province displayed amazing talent. It was also great to see other local scouts being present, which will give these youngsters an even better opportunity of being scouted. Over and above the great football that was on display, it was encouraging to see how Coca-Cola brought together the community of Kagiso for a full day of entertainment,” said Mahlangu.
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