The Durban University of Technology’s soccer team was victorious during the soccer and netball tournament recently held at Curries Fountain, ML Sultan.

The tournament was attended by Mangosuthu University of Technology, Swaziland University and University of Zululand.

On the scoreboard, DUT lead with seven points and MUT trailed behind with just five points. “The team worked very hard preparing for the tournament, it would have been a shameful loss, had we lost on home ground. The final match against MUT was not easy but because the team’s defene was strong, we managed to draw. Every time the other team had the ball, our backline tried its best to keep it from the net and our frontline was there to score the three goals. Although in the past the weather affected us, this time around we made sure that it did not stand in our way of victory,” said Thubalethu Phaku, DUT’s Sports Administrator and Coach.

In the first half of the finals the team’s movement was okay, passing the ball and trying its utmost best to get it to the front but the DUT team refused to make it easy for MUT. DUT team pressed forward putting bodies in front of anyone who attempted to take the ball forward to the scoring line throughout its three matches. In its first game against Swaziland, the DUT team did battle between the wind and the rain. However, when Swaziland failed to defend the first second goal, it became obvious that progress was futile for the team and DUT ended up winning by 3-2 making it progress to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, DUT had an easy win against Unizulu where it scored a whopping 3 points to zero, promoting the team to the finals against MUT. Keeping its scoring power, DUT team drew with MUT where both sides had 3 each.

“We did our best for the full 90 minutes, although it was a draw, but there is a lot of progress and stability and we will maintain it for the next two remaining tournaments, we are not turning back now, doing well is our ultimate goal,” said the team’s Captain, Thobani Zikhali.

In other games, MUT drew with UniZulu and won 2 to 1 against University of Swaziland. Meanwhile UniZulu lost to Swaziland by two goals to one. The DUT netball team could not play because not all teams were present. The next tournament is scheduled to take place in October at the University of Limpopo.

– Noxolo Memela

Pictured: DUT’s staff soccer team