By Joshua Hendricks
The eternal junior under 18 rivalry in Cape Town will be reestablished this weekend at Athlone Stadium, the home of football in the Mother City, as the Citizens come up against Ubuntu in a showdown you really won’t want to miss. It’s the Coca-Cola Amateur Under 18 finale.
When it comes to junior football in Cape Town, rivalries don’t come much fiercer than Ubuntu Football and Cape Town City because they play each other regularly, their games are always tight and challenging, decided by just one goal and supporters know they’ll be on the edge of their seats.
And the eternal junior under-18 rivalry in Cape Town will be reestablished this weekend at Athlone Stadium, the home of football in the Mothers City, as the Citizens come up against Ubuntu this Saturday at 13:00 pm in a showdown you really won’t want to miss.
The final promises to be a massive game. We caught up with Citizens Coach Neven Payne and Ubuntus’ Moritz Kossmann to find out how their preparations are going, and what we can expect.
“We are really proud of having reached this stage,” Moritz Kossmann says. “There were a lot of tight games, and there were only two games with big scorelines. It’s been a real challenge. It’s a great achievement because it’s Africa’s largest amateur competition with 600 teams in total and 256 teams in the under 18 section.”
The team is tried and tested, and ready for action.
“We put together a Coke team every year, and this is also the team that will perform in the final. A lot of the guys that have been regulars in the ABC Motsepe League before are not going to play in this. The guys have stepped up – a lot of under-16 players have performed really well and even managed to play well through conditions like the bumpy field in Manenberg. Finding a way to win there within our principles, within our playing style was challenging, but they have been flexible and good enough to do that”.
For Coach Neven Payne, it’s about more than just winning the competition; it’s also about players proving themselves to Cape Town City so that they can be considered for either the third division team,the DStv Diski Challenge, or even the ultimate DStv Premiership squad. These are the levels available at the club and everyone wants to be a part of it.
“It’s a combination of youngsters wanting to come in and prove that they are good enough for the third division, but they are all still 16, 17 years old. Being the defending champions, we don’t want to put pressure on the boys, the majority of them are those of the newer group of players and not much from last year’s winners. I told them it’s just another game and part of their development, all they need to do is play the football they can play, have fun and the result will sort itself out.”
City may be the defending champions, but will City dig into their pool of talent at their disposal with it being a final of a cup that they hold? Or will the trust be put into the younger and newer generation of players coming through the Cape Town City system.
“Unfortunately not, some of them have played for me in the Coke Cup but the DDC is also playing away this Saturday against Sekhukhune. So I won’t be able to use any of those players even though there are a couple of them who are still under 18”.
Clash Of The Titans: The Eternal Rivalry Continues
The pair ignited their rivalry at the 2019 Engen Knockout Challenge final, where Ubuntu emerged triumphant. In 2021 they met again in the final of the same tournament (Ubuntu winning again), and then faced each other in the Coke Cup semi-final as well (where City won the day, and the cup). And this year they met at the Bayhill Premier Cup in the knockout rounds, then again in the Engen semi-final (with City taking the game, and ultimately the crown).
“Over the last year, the club has been very successful having won the Engen this year and we won the Coke last year,” says Coach Payne.
There is a different expectation on the young shoulders of the Citizens camp, with them the Engen final in Langa and then losing in the Engen national final in Gauteng.
“So there is an expectation – but for us it’s still about development: the players feel that in every competition they want to be in the final,” continued Coach Payne.
In many ways, the clash is a fight between two contrasting models of football development, both of which have proven very successful.
Ubuntu essentially starts the process at the age of under-7, whereas Cape Town City’s phase begins at the under-16 level, relying heavily on good recruitment and the understanding that from the age of fourteen or fifteen, a potentially good player is more likely to develop if identified at this specific age.
“What I’m most proud of is the flexibility and playing within our principles across various different conditions, and doing this so very successfully and also the young guys stepping up to this level,” says Coach Kossman. “For our players it’s an awesome platform.”
And no matter who wins, supporters can expect a really high level of football tactically.
“It’s exciting for me when we play a top team like City,” Kossman concludes. “They have some very good players and they asked some very challenging questions tactically, so I’m looking forward to seeing a good game of football. And we get to play at Athlone Stadium, which is a good stage, a big field. I think that will help to elevate that game to the next level.”
Edited by Nicklaus Kruger
