Acid test for Vondwe XI Bullets in provincial promotional playoffs

The Thohoyandou Stadium will be a hive of activity this weekend. That is where the long-awaited SAB League provincial promotional playoffs will take place. The tournament should have been played about two months ago but had to be postponed indefinitely, following the cabinet’s decision to move the country from lockdown alert level 3 to level 4 towards the end of June.

As usual, five teams from the five regional associations will battle for promotion in the two-day event. Teams that will represent their respective regions in the tournament are: Vondwe XI Bullets (Vhembe), Emmanuel FC (Mopani), Vuka Hungry Tigers (Capricorn), Greenhouse FC (Waterberg) and Mamatho United from Sekhukhune.

Asked about their level of readiness for the event, the coach of Vondwe XI Bullets, Mr Tsumbedzo “Zoo” Manamela, revealed that they were more than ready to absorb any amount of heat. He described the postponement of the tournament as a blessing in disguise to his team. According to him, they had used the past weeks to tighten up the team’s loose ends. Mr Manamela said that they had played a few friendly matches over the past two weeks as a way of gauging their level of readiness for the annual event.

Mr Manamela’s counterpart from Emmanuel FC, Mr Tshikani Nkondo, is adamant that nothing will stop his team from gaining promotion to the ABC Motsepe League. He added that he was gravely disappointed when his team failed to make the grade in the same tournament at the Thabazimbi Stadium in the Waterberg Region last year.

The opening match will be between Vondwe Xi Bullets and Vuka Hungry Tigers, followed by the match between Greenhouse FC and Mamatho United. The other fixtures for tomorrow are: Vuka Hungry Tigers vs Emmanuel FC, Mamatho United vs Vondwe XI Bullets and Emmanuel FC vs Greenhouse FC.

Sunday’s fixtures are: Vuka Hungry Tigers vs Mamatho United, Vondwe XI Bullets vs Emmanuel FC, Greenhouse FC vs Vuka Hungry Tigers, Emmanuel FC vs Mamatho United and Greenhouse FC vs Vondwe XI Bullets.

The top two teams in the tournament will gain promotion to the ABC Motsepe League. Madridtas FC represented the Vhembe Regional League at the Thabazimbi Stadium in the Waterberg Region last year. Madridtas failed to make the grade in the event. They won their first two games and lost the last two.

Date:06 August 2021

By: Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990.  He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

Read: 1127