UWC Ladies Football Club has been confirmed as the new champions of the Western Cape Sasol League – the senior women’s football league in South Africa – after they won their last two games recently.
The Udubs ladies made their intentions clear when they fought hard to come from a goal down to topple log-leaders Spurs Ladies 2-1 in a highly contested encounter at Nyanga Stadium on Saturday, 15 October 2016. Trailing by an odd goal in the first half, Udubs came back strongly in the second half and Kelso Peskin’s powerful header found the net after she connected from a well-taken Thalea Smidt corner. Then Banyana Banyana star Leandra Smeda added a cherry on top when she fired a cracker from outside the box to ensure that the team bagged all three points.
The win shot UWC to the top of the log standings and they wrapped up the league in style on Tuesday evening when they beat Ikamva Ladies 4-1, also at Nyanga stadium. Missing two key players in Thembi Kgatlana and Amogelang Motau who were called up to the Banyana Banyana team that will face Egypt in a friendly game on Saturday, 22 October, the team showed that they have enough depth when a brace by Aaqilah Alfreds and a goal by Peskin and Smidt ensured that they bring the cup home.
It’s the first time the team wins the Sasol League, and it’s their third trophy in three weeks and the fourth one for the year. Two weeks ago the team won the Safa Cape Town-organised Coca-Cola Cup, and a weekend before that a Knockout Trophy in the Northern Suburbs Local Football Association, in addition to the University Sport South Africa (USSA) Club Championships at the beginning of the year.
Coach Nathan Peskin is over the moon and commended his players, both current and past, as well as his technical team, for the team’s successes. “We have managed to win the league for the first time in six years since I am the head coach at UWC. Being crowned Western Cape Sasol League champions is a huge honour and has further catapulted the institution into the forefront of the development of women and women’s football. We are now one of the top football institutions in the country, if not the top institution, given this year’s outstanding achievements in all competitions
Peskin believes that the success of the team did not come overnight. “Our achievements this year are the fruition of very long-term goals. It took patience, focus and continuous hard work to achieve what we have as a team this year. As a coach I am extremely proud of all the players who have helped achieve these long-term goals over the last few years. This has not been a success story of one season. It has been a work in progress and everyone that contributed along the past six years needs to be saluted.”
The Udubs team have a chance to add another trophy to their cabinet when they represent the province in the Sasol League national play-offs that are scheduled to take place towards the end of the year.
