What a show it turned out to be over the past weekend when the Tigers Football family put out a massive soccer extravaganza.
Hats off to Mohamed Said Adam ( Tiger president) and his great band of officials for putting such a prestigious tournament together from Friday evening ( September 11) until Sunday, September 13 at their home grounds at the Powerlines.
The ‘Powerlines’ were packed. Teams from as far as Laudium, Marlboro, Mondeor, Emmerentia, Benoni, Springs, Rosnhee, Fordsburg and Lenasia participated in what was called a nonstop soccer weekend.
The little ‘laaitjies’ and lasses from U6 division right up to the seniors were well catered for .
The tournament was originally schedule for last weekend but due to continuous downpours, games were postponed.
165 teams packed the venue and parents provide much vocal power and ‘Oh Boys’ from the crowd. The standard of competition was very stiff in many divisions.
The group games were very competitive and some teams were just not lucky enough to secure a spot in the semis. In the end all participants were winners.
The seniors clash between Valache Chiefs and Laudium All Stars was the climax of the great tournament. The game was decided in extra time when Laudium’s Zella Sadha netted a beauty after the teams were at loggerheads in regular time (1-1). Goals scored a piece by Showen Padachachi and a pile-driver equaliser by Naeem Amojee
Bellevue United scraped through victors in a penalty shootout against Lenasia Academy U16 after Keeper of Bellevue, Kamo Melela put his leg in the way to save a shot going into the nets (Bellevue 3 – Lenasia Academy 2).
The U14 final Lenasia Academy went on to beat Bellevue 3-2 after a penalty shootout.
The U12 finals were won by Marlboro United after they beat Lenasia Wolves by a lone goal scored by Abdulla Moosa.
A penalty shootout and sudden death settled the score in the U11 finals between Tigers and Mondeor, seeing the visitors turned victors.
Players in the development league received medals of participation.
Winners and the runners-up received trophies. The winners also received individual medals.
Lenasia Soccer League(LSL) president, Nazeem ‘Blonde’ Raffie was full of praise for the Tigers organisation for putting this soccer showpiece together and setting the standard very high. He said “Tigers did very well in hosting such a grand soccer tournament for all the divisions and I am sure that everybody enjoyed every bit of it.”
Special praise was directed to Mohseen Kotwal , an official of Tigers and Secretary of the LSL and to the beautiful announcer and time keeper, Shineze Kajee ( daughter of former and founder club secretary, Amnoo Kajee).
Rashaad ‘Ghashi ‘ was also full of praise to the Tiger Organisation for putting together such a lovely tournament. He said, “ Well done to Tigers, you have outdone other clubs in hosting one of the biggest soccer tournaments we have played in. It was very nice to see many teams from outside playing here at this tournament. It was sheer brilliance on their part.”
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