Gauteng will take on Mpumalanga while Santos will face neighbours Cape Town City in the semi-finals of the SAFA/Burger King u19 Men’s Championship.

 

 

Gauteng will take on Mpumalanga while Santos will face neighbours Cape Town City in the semi-finals of the SAFA/Burger King u19 Men’s Championship.

The Burger King-sponsored tournament is currently underway at the William Herbert Sports Complex in Wynberg, Cape Town.

The semi-finals will take place on Friday, 16 December and will kickoff simultaneously at 15h00.

After the final group stage matches, the goal difference rule separated teams who were tied on points.

Gauteng finished on seven with Ajax Cape Town in Group B, while in Group C Cape Town City also had the same number of points (7) with Mpumalanga.

In the end, Gauteng finished top of their group, and qualified alongside Cape Town City as well as Santos who accumulated seven points.

They were joined in the last four by Mpumalanga, as the best second-placed team, who had a better goal difference to Ajax.

Santos finished one point ahead of hosts Western Cape, with KwaZulu Natal managing only two points – one more than Limpopo in Group A, who lost 3-1 to Santos in their last group stage match.

Western Cape beat KwaZulu Natal 2-0 but it was not enough to see them through.

In Group B Ajax needed to win to stand any chance of proceeding to the next round but could only manage a goalless draw with Gauteng who had a better goal difference.

The result meant the coastal side had to wait for favourable results in Group C, but it was not to be as Mpumalanga thumped North West 3-0 to finish second with a superior goal difference to Ajax, while Cape Town City walloped Northern Cape 4-1.

Free State won 2-0 in the dead rubber against Eastern Cape.

Duncan Adoni of Cape Town City is still leading the top goal scoring charts with five goals after he found the back against Northern Cape when he scored from the penalty spot. His strikes have contributed in making the coastal side the team with the highest number of goals in the tournament (8).

Fabian van Zyl of Northern Cape is breathing down Adoni’s neck with four goals – but he will play no further part in the tournament as his side has been eliminated.

After three games, North West has the leakiest defence with 12 goals conceded, while Ajax Cape Town had the stingiest defence as they did not concede.

KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, and North West did not win a match – with the latter two failing to collect any points.

Five teams did not lose a single match in the group stages – Cape Town City, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Ajax Cape Town and Western Cape.

None of the 12 teams in the competition won all their games.

DAY 4 RESULTS – THURSDAY, 15 DECEMBER – William Herbert Sports Ground

Western Cape 2 – 0 KZN

Limpopo 1 – 3 Santos

Free State 2 – 0 Eastern Cape

Gauteng 0 – 0 Ajax Cape Town

North West 0 – 3 Mpumalanga

Northern Cape 1 – 4 Cape Town City

GROUP STANDINGS

Group A P W D GF GA GD PTS
Santos Invitational 3 2 1 0 5 1 4 7
Western Cape 3 2 0 1 6 3 3 6
KwaZulu Natal 3 0 2 1 1 3 -2 2
Limpopo 3 0 1 2 3 8 -5 1
Group B P W D GF GA GD PTS
Gauteng  3 2 1 0 6 5 1 7
Ajax Cape Town 3 2 1 0 3 0 3 7
Free State 3 2 0 2 2 4 -2 3
Eastern Cape 3 0 0 3 1 7 -6 0
Group C P W D GF GA GD PTS
Cape Town City  3 2 1 0 8 3 5 7
Mpumalanga 3 2 1 0 7 2 5 7
Northern Cape 3 1 0 2 7 7 0 3
North West 3 0 0 3 2 12 -10 0

DAY 5 FIXTURES – FRIDAY, 16 DECEMBER – William Herbert Sports Ground

SEMI-FINAL 1
GAUTENG vs MPUMALANGA 15H00 FIELD A

SEMI-FINAL 2
SANTOS vs CAPE TOWN CITY 15H00 FIELD B

DAY 6 – SATURDAY, 17 DECEMBER

REST DAY

DAY 7 FIXTURES – SUNDAY, 18 DECEMBER – Phillipi Stadium

3rd/ 4th Place Play-Off

LOSER SEMI-FINAL 1 vs LOSER SEMI-FINAL 2 11H15

FINAL

WINNER SEMI-FINAL 1 vs WINNER SEMI-FINAL 2 15H00