Soccer Academy FC headed for Bakenberg

The sensational Bela-Bela Soccer Academy is headed for Bakenberg outside Mokopane for the regional leg of the multi-million rand Kay Mostepe Schools Cup.

The academy squad, which is made up of younsgets from Bela-Bela High School, was scheduleed to battle it out with winning schools from Lephalale and Mokopane on Saturday 18 August.

The Lephalale and Mokopane schools had not as yet been named at the time of going to print.

Bela-Bela Soccer Academy advanced to the regional stages of the competition after beating Modimolle’s Phagameng High School in a sensational fightback, winning 3-2 after extra time.

The two teams were level at 2-all at the end of regulation time.

In the first half the rather brave Phagameng High School boys were leading 2-0.

But then things turned ugly after Bela-Bela Soccer Academy reduced the margin to 2-1 in the second half, and were awarded a penalty shortly thereafter.

The Phagameng High School technical team stormed the pitch to register their protest.

The match did eventually continue with Bela-Bela Soccer Academy advancing to the regional round-robin fixtures.

The academy soccer team was also the winner of the Waterberg preliminary stages of the tournament in 2017, but was sent packing at the provincial levels.

The Sanlam Kay Motsepe Cup, hosted under the auspices of the South African Schools Football Association (SASFA), is the biggest schools football tournament in the country with prizemoney of
over R3-million.

The national winners take home R1-million prizemoney, with R600 000 set aside for the runners-up, and R500 000 for the team coming out third, and R400 000 for fourth place.

Provincial winners receive R100 000 in prizemoney.

The Sanlam Kay Motsepe Cup is an initiative co-funded by Sanlam, the Ubuntu-Botho Community Development Trust and the Motsepe Family Foundation.

— The BEAT