Kuyakhanya Primary school win COPA Coca-Cola Westernern Cape Cup

Kuyakhanya Primary School were crowned champions of the Western Cape COPA Coca-Cola Play Offs on Saturday, 28 July at the Western Cape Sport School in Cape Town. This was after edging an impressive 3-1 win over last year’s champions, Bastiaanse Secondary School.

Kuyakhanya got off to a great start with a hard fought 1-0 victory over Cloetesville Secondary School before easily brushing aside Lukhanyo Primary School 5-0 to set up a final against the former champions.

Bastiaanse showed why they were last year’s champions when they got off to a flying start with a 8-0 thrashing of Indwe Secondary School which was followed by a comfortable 3-0 win over Louville Secondary School to easily match into the finals.

After going into the break on a 1-1 stalemate, it was Kuyakhanya who came out stronger in the second half to secure a 3-1 victory and ultimately book a place in the COPA Coca-Cola National Finals.

As an addition to this year’s COPA Coca-Cola tournament, Coca-Cola launched its COPA Coca-Cola Future Stars search which will see selected players being hand-picked by COPA Coca-Cola Ambassador, Jabu “Shuffle” Mahlangu. Mahlangu alongside a team of talent scouts comprising of former players in Simba Marumo and Jabulani Mendu for a unique training camp to be held at the High-Performance Centre in Pretoria later this year. 

  

The next stop for the tournament will be on Saturday, 4 August at the COPA Coca-Cola Gauteng Provincial Play Offs are set to take place at the Kagiso Stadium in Kagiso where COPA Coca-Cola ambassador, Jabu “Shuffle” Mahlangu and scouts will be there to identify more players for the COPA Coca-Cola Future Stars camp.

“A school’s football development initiative such as the COPA Coca-Cola tournament is exactly what South African football needs to move forward and this is demonstrated in how the tournament has produced a number of quality footballers that I remember playing against in my career. Amazing talent has been on display in the last three provinces and we are looking forward to witnessing more school’s football talent in Gauteng through the COPA Coca-Cola U15 tournament” said Mahlangu.

Adding onto Mahlangu’s sentiments on the importance of unique initiatives such as the COPA Coca-Cola U15 School’s tournament, President of the South African School’s Football Association (SASFA), Mandla Mazibuko thanked Coca-Cola’s unwavering support to football development.

“It is time for this golden age generation to close the gap between grass roots & development football whilst playing competitively in line with fair play, honesty and integrity. The levels of development will no longer be the same, thanks to this partnership between all the stakeholders involved in the beautiful game” said Mazibuko.

Kuyakhanya Primary School’s Road to the final:

Team A	Score	Team B
Kuyakhanya Primary School	1-0	Cloetesville Secondary School
Lukhanyo Primary School	0-1	Kuyakhanya Primary School

Final Match: 

Kuyakhanya Primary School 3-1 Bastiaanse Secondary School

With Kuyakhanya Primary School claiming the COPA Coca-Cola Western Cape crown, they become the third team to secure a place in the COPA Coca-Cola National Finals set to take place at the Wolfson Stadium in Port Elizabeth from 26 to 29 September 2018. 

Upcoming COPA Coca-Cola Provincial Play Offs: 

DATE	PROVINCE	VENUE
4 August	Gauteng	Kagiso Stadium
11 August	North West	Ikageng Stadium
18 August	KwaZulu-Natal	King Zwelithini Stadium
25 August	Free State	Bohlokong Stadium
1 September	Limpopo	Malamulele Stadium
8 September	Mpumalanga	Lynville Stadium
26–29 September	Eastern Cape	Wolfson Stadium