Strand Legends FC became the champions of the Nophephela Memorial Top Four Tournament 2022 after they thrashed Rapela Legends FC 3-0 at Lwandle Stadium in Lwandle on Saturday 30 April.
The tournament was established to commemorate local Nophephela Manzini Xhotyana who died in 2020.
The event organiser, Sandile Bavuma, said the tournament is an annual event. He said their aim is to keep the name and spirit of Nophephela’s love of football alive.
“We started the tournament last year. As soccer fanatics felt a need to commemorate one of our own.
Nophephela loved soccer. He used to come to the stadium every weekend to watch soccer even if his team was not playing,” said Bavuma.
Explaining about the tournament, he said there were only four legends teams entered for the competition.
“Due to lack of sponsorship we don’t have trophies or medals. We are playing for fun. But we are appealing to local business people to come on board and support our initiative,” said Bavuma.
Strand Legends’ captain Bricks Mgutywa described the competition as very entertaining.
He said the game wasn’t easy but they managed to win. “We were more relaxed on the ball. We were leading 2-0 in the first half and we scored one goal in the second half and sealed the game,” said Mgutywa.
He cited that Legends teams are not only about playing football but about fitness and healthy living as well.
Rapela’s coach Jerry Bobi cited fitness as a major factor that led them to lose the finals.
“Fitness was the major problem for my players. Almost all of them were lacking fitness while our opponents were a bit more in shape than us. We tried to contain them in the first few minutes but they overpowered us,” said Bobi.
He said he hopes that as the time goes by they will get in shape.
“They were more advanced than us because most of the Strand players are active in legend’s league. They are playing regularly,” he stated.
