Derby day caps off gruelling week of congested fixtures for Panorama Football Club

Score lines and log tables tell only half the tale of planning, execution and outcome.

Four games in eight days presented a taxing physical and mental test for Panorama Football Club’s Gauteng Development League (GDL) stars. Featuring two catch-up fixtures, Panorama welcomed Jomo Cosmos on August 5, and travelled to Wits Juniors on Women’s Day, before a double-header derby weekend at home to Ruimsig-based TS Galaxy and eternal rivals Randburg AFC on August 12 and 13.

GDL promotion and relegation are calculated on the combined log points from the four participating age groups and Panorama will be happy with the 30 points accumulated from the week’s fixtures. From their four games, the U13s drew two and won two while the U15s also emerged unbeaten, winning three and playing out a thrilling 3–3 draw with Wits Juniors. The highlight of the week was a clean sweep of TS Galaxy as Panorama earned four wins from four against the professional outfit.

The visit to Randburg always draws a crowd of past and present members to add some extra spice. The U13s finished all square at 1–1 but Panorama’s U15s landed the first clean punch when they clung on to a 1–0 lead to earn the three points. Randburg would round the day out with a solid one-two combination, sending their U17 and U19 hosts to the canvas with two 4–0 defeats.

Panorama’s technical director Roman Schröder is a meticulous analyst who revels in footballing minutiae.
“Some highs and lows as always. Sometimes people who are not in football get confused between a good performance and a good result. I think we had some good performances against TS Galaxy but I wasn’t fully satisfied with all the team’s performances although we all went on to win. The results outweighed the performances but to walk away with a full house is mega,” Schröder stated.

Admitting the U17s were outplayed by Randburg, Schröder paid special attention to the U19 score line which he claimed was a gross misrepresentation of the game. Describing the contrast of Randburg’s direct physicality with Panorama’s attempts to be more sophisticated, he said, “Against Randburg I think three out of the four teams were the better teams, displaying better footballing application and that is a positive, especially against our biggest rivals in the area.”

With 10 fixtures still to play, the biggest games will be a return trip to Randburg and the visit of Highlands Park and SuperSport United. Panorama’s U13 and U15 teams sit seventh and sixth of their logs, respectively, while the U19s sit ninth. Schröder hopes to lift the U17s from 15th on their log but as things stand Panorama look set to maintain their top-half consistency and their status as one of the best amateur clubs in the GDL.

“It would be nice to improve on that but you have to decide if you want better results or better performances. If you think about results then sure, it’s exciting but in reality, it is not exciting for development. What is exciting for development are the performances. Performance is based on the principles of our play that we want players to apply, the application of that, and how consistently they can do that. We feel we expose them to the right principles and so their application of that is a good performance,” said Schröder, admitting a mix of both would be ideal.