In association with Pepsi the event was held at Outeniqua Park for the first time and became the largest soccer tournament to be held in this arena. There were teams from all across the Western Cape competing in this regional event.
George United Football Club also provided a free transport system to and from the event in order to make this event accessible to everyone in George. The tournament itself was split into groups and played in a round robin basis with the top 8 teams to participate in the cup knockout competition and the rest to play in the plate competition.
Some of the highlight games in the group stages of the tournament were in group A with Leopards against West End, a top side from Cape Town.
Spectators were rewarded with numerous goal chances. Rowan Hermoras and Khijaam Isaacs made the most of their chances to put West End up by two goals. Leopards stuck to their game plan and with Arian Ourtaev in inspirational form scoring two goals to bring his team back on level terms, however West End were not to be beaten when Emjay Arendse scored the winning goal.
In Group B it came down to the old rivalry between Falcons and Rangers with both teams needing to win to progress to the cup knockout stages. It was a close game with both sides showing they have a huge amount of talent.
With Adrain van Rooyen and Patrick Cole both scoring for Rangers it was Falcons that had the extra bit of good fortune on the day with Josh Quist scoring a good brace and Daniel le Roux adding a third making the final score 3-2 to the Falcons.
In Group C the all important game came down to Oakhill from Knysna and the Cobras from George. Oakhill needed to win by two goals to go through to the knockout stages. Cobras started brightly with a well taken goal by Miguel des Neves to make the task harder for Oakhill, but Zolsa Sonqayi grabbed an outstanding hat trick.
Wian Jerlings scored for Cobras and put a dent in Oakhill’s plans, until Ruben Tudi made the most of his chance and make the final score 4-2 and send Oakhill into the knockout stages.
On Sunday the knockout stages began and the pressure started to mount on all the teams and coaches, with 7 Stars already through to the semi- finals thanks to beating Oakhill in their quarter final.
With Falcons playing West End they were in for a tough time. With the game tied at 1-1 at full time thanks to goals from Ardeil Solomons for West End and Wian Schoonbee for Falcons, the game went to penalties and West End maintained their composure to win 5-4.
In the final quarter two George based teams competing against each other for the remaining place in the semi-finals. With Eagles playing Ramza United neither side could be separated and the game went down to the lottery of the penalty shootout.
Both teams had their chances to win the shootout. Neither side could take control and it was Eagles whose extra determination and luck saw them progress after one of the most demanding penalty shootout contest that needed a total of 47 penalties to separate these sides. Eagles won 19-18. In the first semi-final Lifezone took the game to 7 Stars and Lifezone won by a single goal from Zolan Cloete.
The second semi between West End and Eagles was a tight affair with Eagles looking a little flat after their epic penalty shoot out in the previous round, but their defense held tight with the final score 0-0 the game went again to penalties.
Eagles won the shootout 5-3.
The final was contested between Eagles of George and Lifezone from Cape Town.
Lifezone drew first blood thanks to a goal from Cayleb van Harte.
The crowd was ecstatic when Jon-Henry Human made the most of a difficult chance to equalize the score and send the game to another penalty shootout for Eagles. They went on to dominate the shootout and win the contest 3-0 on penalties.
Prizes were also awarded to Clyde van Harte (coach of the tournament), Dennis Germishuys (Feyenood) (goalkeeper of the tournament), Jona Katzen (Cobras) (most promising player), Khiyamm Issacs (West End) (best player) and Jon-Henry Human (Eagles) (most valuable players).
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Winners Eagles and runners up Lifezone at the end of the final match.
