African Connection kicked off its pre-season training with a mini soccer tournament at JD Dlepu Stadium on the weekend of 20 January.
African Connection kicked off its pre-season training with a mini soccer tournament at JD Dlepu Stadium on the weekend of 20 January.
Chris Totobela, coach of African Connection who is due to retire from coaching in March, organised the event to gauge his players' level of fitness.
He opened up the tournament to other teams, who also used the event to pick the correct starting line-up for their sides. The tournament was held in the form of various seven a-side soccer games.
Totobela has planned his retirement for after the South African Football Association (Safa) Cacadu Women’s Regional League play-offs in February.
Here, African Connection will represent Cacadu, after winning the Cacadu league at the end of the 2014 season. African Connection has won the Cacadu Women’s regional League for the past seven consecutive years.
Totobela said the tournament was a trial to test his players' fitness levels.
The main game of the day saw the regular African Connection starters play against the substitutes in the African Connection Regulars vs African Connection Benchwarmers game.
Totobela said this gave the substitutes a chance to play against their competition. The Benchwarmers went into a 1-0 lead at half-time thanks to a goal by Ovayo Mdakana.
Nosifundo Mfabana equalised for Regulars in the dying minutes of the game, before the Regulars won 3-1 on penalties.
Totobela thanked everyone who had supported the African Connection players’ tournament.
