The ManicaPost
Fungayi Munyoro Sports Correspondent
CHAKOHWA Primary School won the third edition of the Matenda Under-14 Soccer Tournament held at Mhandarume Primary School last week.
The tournament, which is a preserve of teams in Chimanimani West, is bankrolled by Sharon and Clifford Matenda.
Chaseyama, Chakohwa, Hot Springs, Mhandarume and Nechitima made up the list of the teams that took part in this year’s edition.
Chaseyama, who won the first and second editions, failed to impress and settled for third position.
Mashonjowa Primary School withdrew due to financial constraints.
Each team played a total of four matches and were rated by the number of points they amassed.
Chakohwa won two games and drew two to amass eight points, while Mhandarume were on second position with six points.
Former champions Chaseyama were on third position with five points, while Hot Springs were on fourth position with four points.
Nechitima found the going tough and managed to gather two points.
There were individual prizes as well, where the Golden Boot Award was scooped by Chakohwa’s Farai Sithole.
Mhandarume’s Lewis Mugadza was named Goalkeeper of the Tournament, while Timothy Munyasha of Nechitima was named the Most Disciplined Player.
Admire Sithole was voted Player of the Tournament and 10-year-old Zviko Tsinakwadi was named the Youngest Player.
Matenda Tournament is the brainchild of Clifford together with his wife Sharon. It started off as a family event in 2014 whereby the entire Matenda family would gather and play soccer.
Later on they started to engage other villagers until they came up with the idea of a soccer tournament.
Their main aim now is to develop youngsters who have the desire to play soccer.
“We are happy as a family that this tournament is growing in stature each and every year.
“Villagers in this area are so supportive and even parents came to grace our event.
“We hope to do better in future and next year we will introduce women soccer.
“The games went on well, but we still have challenges with our schools that can’t send their teams due to financial problems,” said Sharon Matenda
