Okuryangava-based side Riverheights Football Academy retained their U/17 HopSol Youth Football title following a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Ramblers at the Jan Möhr Football Field on Saturday.
Ramblers took the early lead in the first half from Darryl Musvamiri, who scored from close range but went on to miss a host of chances allowing Riverheights to gain confidence.
Jayden Soroseb equalised for Riverheights early in the second half, heading in a perfectly delivered free-kick.
That gave the defending champions the initiative to increase the intensity of the match, while Rammies failed to assert themselves.
Another set piece saw Riverheights take the lead after Ramblers failed to effectively deal with a corner kick.
Riverheights’ Tafadzwa Mashozhera took advantage of Ramblers’ lack of concentration in the box to fire home the winning goal, sparking wild celebrations from his team’s supporters.
Losing coach Hafeni Ndeitunga lamented his boys’ lack of concentration after taking the lead, saying it cost them victory.
“It was a game of two halves; in the first 15 minutes, we did very well. Riverheights is a very fit team; they always come non-stop,” he said.
Ndeitunga felt they had many chances in front of the goal to make it two, but Riverheights started gaining confidence.
“Our confidence started going down, and I guess the better team won today, which is a fair reflection of the game. I think my players mentally just switched off and underestimated the other team as we were one nil in front; we just have to go back and see how we can play better football,” he said.
Riverheights won all but lost one match in the league (to CBC) throughout the season, almost giving them a perfect record for the 2023 campaign.
Winning coach Richard Tjari was ecstatic after the match, saying that as defending champions, winning back-to-back titles was no easy feat.
“The first half was 50/50; when they scored, we held on. We liked how our boys were pushing, and we could see that they wanted to win,” he explained.
He said he reminded his boys during their halftime talk to play the Riverheights way, which meant that they had to apply more intensity and attack more as he believed Ramblers were getting comfortable with their lead.
“We started playing with more intensity, and that’s how we got the two goals in the second half. I’m very happy with my squad, as most of them I will be able to retain for the same age group as they are 16 years old and below this year. If you check during the year, we only lost once against CBS, which is a good team. I think in the semi-finals, we had a penalty shootout. All the other games throughout the season we have been winning in normal time, which is a positive for the club, and that makes me very happy,” he concluded.