Round of 16 Clash with Ghana

After cruising through the group stages of the Street Football World Cup with three wins, United Through Sport South Africa were given an extremely tough round of 16 clash against Africa Continental Champions Ghana.

Going into the clash, Ghana were regarded as one of the favourites to win the tournament, with a much older and stronger group of players and only one female in their line-up. Ghana also boasted two full time professional players in their ranks. So this was always going to be a David V’s Goliath situation.

The United Through Sport team fought bravely throughout the game and late in the second half looked like possibly causing an upset after coming back from 4-1 down to make the score 4-3 and give Ghana a tense last few minutes.

Unfortunately the upset was not to be and the game finished 5-3 in favour of the older more experienced Ghana side.

Our South Africa side showed their integrity throughout and came away with maximum value points for fair play, respect and cooperation, with Ghana only picking up one point out of three.

We now fall out of the main competition but go into a ‘Fair play’ group to continue to fight for further honours.

“Our team fought really hard and I’m so proud of the fact that they maintained their values and integrity throughout. We are now one of only 5 remaining teams to have picked up maximum value points in all of our games. In context it’s important to remember that we are one of the youngest teams here, with our youngest player being only 14 compared to most teams playing with 20 and 21 year olds. We are also one of the few teams participating with four boys and four girls to give equal gender balance. Lets also remember we have also gone further in the competition than any senior Bafana Bafana team at a World Cup”. Nick Mould – United Through Sport South Africa Coach