Free State lift inaugural SAB Under 21 National Championship trophy

20 Apr 2009

Hosts Free State were on Saturday, 19 April 2009 crowned the inaugural winners of the SAB Under-21 National Championships - this after an emphatic 3-1 victory over a determined Northern Cape at the Clive Solomon Stadium in Bloemfontein. The home team made their intentions clear as early as the 10th minute through Dikotsi Mabeleng who made no mistake after a defence splitting pass from Mamello Mokoena.

Khotso Moleko - who was named top goal scorer of the tournament with six goals - added his name on the score-sheet in the 50th minute when he easily beat goalkeeper of the tournament Raymond Steyn of the Northern Cape.

Four minutes later, Sive Frans pulled one back for the Cape side before crowd favourite Moleko grabbed his second of the day and Free State's third following a pass from Mokoena in the 75th minute. The goal virtually ended the match as a contest. Northern Cape took home 10-thousand rand for second place while the winners walked away with a 20-thousand rand winners' cheque.

In an earlier match, Limpopo finished third to grab bronze following a 4-2 win against Gauteng in the losers final. Gauteng pocketed five thousand rand while Limpopo was awarded eight thousand rand.

The week-long tournament started on Easter Monday and involved ten teams - nine from the provinces and a national side of the University Sports South Africa team. The event also attracted prominent talent scouts like David Modise, Harris Choeu, David Byrne and Floyd Mogale.
Also present throughout the week was newly appointed Safa technical director development and Amajita coach, Serame Letsoaka while Bafana Bafana assistant coach Pitso Mosimane, watched the final.

There were also some individual awards which were evenly spread. Even though Free State scooped the Top goal scorer and Coach of the tournament awards, the big one - Player of the Tournament - went to Limpopo.

Award Winners:

Player of the Tournament: Khumbulani Mdluli (Limpopo)
Goalkeeper of the Tournament: Richard Steyn (Northern Cape)
Coach of the Tournament: Queen Modutwane (Free State)
Top goal scorer: Khotso Moleko (Free State)
Referee of the Tournament: Gaswell Ndaba
Assistant Referee of The tournament: Assistance Tsakela