… another thrilling tournament
Staff Reporter
Lüderitz
Going into the Harders Cup as the competition’s greenhorns, Orange Rangers FC from Noordoewer defied the odds when they defeated favourites Novanam 4-2 on penalties to be crowned champions of the 2018 Harders Cup on Sunday. The match had initially ended 4-4.
Novanam were first to put their name on the scoresheet and went into halftime leading 2-0. Rangers however picked up in the second stanza, coming from behind to lead Novanam 4-2.
Novanam, cheered on by the vociferous crowd, sneaked themselves back into the game with two spectacular goals to end the match in a 4-all draw. The match went straight into penalties and Orange Rangers were the more clinical of the two sides, beating Novanam 4-2 on penalties to lift the 2018 Harders Cup trophy.
As champions of the 2018 Harders Cup, Orange Rangers walked away with not only gold medals, but a cool N$100,000 in prize monies, while Novanam pocketed $50,000 after finishing as runners-up for the second year in a row.
Third placed Mountain Rangers from Rosh Pinah walked away with N$20,000 after beating Lüderitz outfit Rush Ups 3-0. Granville Mouton of Rush Ups bagged the Top Goal Scorer award of the tournament after scoring 4 goals and walked away with N$10,000.
Chief organiser of the Harders Cup Tim Ekandjo expressed satisfaction with the overall organisation of the tournament and declared the 2018 Harders Cup another resounding success.
“We are happy that we could make this a truly //Kharas regional initiative and for including the towns of Keetmanshoop, Rosh Pinah and Noordoewer to join the Lüderitz teams. Over two days of exciting football, a total of 30 goals were scored and we almost tripled the number of spectators compared to last year. What more can we ask for? We would like to thank the fans for coming out in their numbers to embrace this competition and we will continue to ask for more discipline when it comes to the Harders Cup music bash so that everybody has a good time,” said a blissful Ekandjo.
The 2018 Harders Cup was delivered at a total budget of N$1.2 million and was sponsored by Standard Bank (Platinum sponsor), Debmarine Namibia, Seaflower, Telecom and Tafel Lite (Gold sponsors), Erongo Marine Enterprises, Shitaka Group, SG Group, and Namibia Sports Commission (Silver sponsors), Skorpion Zinc, Novanam, Pamoja Records, Coca Cola, Lüderitz Waterfront Development, NamPower, Naftal Trading and the Lüderitz Crayfish Festival (Bronze sponsors).