Upington’s Tornado FC secured their maiden entry to the lucrative last 32 of the Nedbank Cup competition by outplaying opponents Kuruman Kicks 3-2 in the ABC Motsepe League regional play-offs.
UPINGTON’S Tornado FC secured their maiden entry to the lucrative last 32 of the Nedbank Cup competition by outplaying opponents Kuruman Kicks 3-2 in the ABC Motsepe League regional play-offs in the JTG district at the weekend.
Safa JTG president Lebogang Riet acknowledged the Upington side as champions of the Northern Cape leg of the competition.
Tornado aka ‘Die Wind’ have been playing in the Motsepe foundation sponsored ABC Motsepe League for over 10 years. Their ascension to the national tier of the Nedbank Cup follows in the tracks of United Rovers of De Aar who were the last Northern Cape based team to give the contenders to the more than R10 million prize a run for their money.
By Wednesday this week neither Riet nor Upington based officials of Tornado FC had accepted media invites for interviews regarding last weekend’s game.
A spectator at the weekend Nedbank play-off match in Kuruman, William Dingakeng, observed on his social media wall: “Kuruman Kicks was far better than Tornado.” To which a fan of Tornado, namely Boingotlo Ngozo retorted: “(Tornado) was far better … but (Kuruman) Kicks lost the game and the Kicks goalkeeper was by far the busiest.”
In the last 32 segment of the competition, amateur sides such as Tornado who won their regional championships from all the provinces are matched against the current Premier Soccer League teams who enjoy an automatic draw in the competition.
