The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
MPOPOMA High School sports director, James Rugwevera, is proud of the achievement by the school’s Under-15 girls soccer team which reached the final of the country’s most prestigious schools soccer competition, Copa Coca-Cola in Zvishavane last Saturday.
The Mpopoma girls put up an impressive show at the national finals where they were beaten 2-1 by Nyamauru from Manicaland in the final played at Mandava Stadium. Mpopoma became the first Bulawayo school to make it to the girls’ finals of Copa Coca-Cola since the females were introduced in 2011.
Rugwevera, who told this publication prior to the national finals that he was pinning his hopes on the girls’ team said they had gained valuable knowledge and will certainly come back stronger in future.
“I am really proud of these girls, to make it to the final was a huge achievement for us. We learnt our lesson, we are now going back to the drawing board, we will bounce back,’’ Rugwevera said.
Mpopoma took both their boys and girls’ teams to the national finals but the lads were disappointing as they were knocked out in the group stage of the competition. Three Mpopoma girls, Nothando Sibanda, Priscilla Marikosi and Nomqhele Thwala were chosen for the Copa Coca-Cola Dreams Team while one boy, Tafadzwa Mamboma made it to the team that will participate in the Copa Coca-Cola Africa Cup of Nations to be held in Kenya in October. Sibanda also walked away with the top scorer for the girls with 10 goals in the tournament.
Last year, goalkeeper Fambainashe Mvere from Mpopoma was selected into the Zimbabwe girls’ Dream Team which gave her an opportunity to attend a Copa Coca-Cola global camp staged in Durban, South Africa from 4 to 8 October.
Mpopoma are slowly becoming a powerhouse when it comes to Copa Coca-Cola as their girls also represented Bulawayo in the nationals held in Bindura last year. Their boys’ team made a return to the national competition in 2015, having last appeared in 2010.
On their way to the final, the Mpopoma girls topped their group with six points and an impressive eight goals scored in just two matches. They thumped Seke 1 3-0 and then drubbed Birivenge 5-0. In the last eight, Mpopoma were 6-0 victorious over Simbo. Chenhuta stood in the way of Mpopoma in the semi-finals with the match between the two teams concluding 0-0 but the Bulawayo lasses won 3-1 on penalties before they were beaten in the final by Nyamauru.
@Mdawini_29
