Croesus ladies vs end of the season

Today we played our last game for 2013. It has been a very long drawn out year. I suppose I will miss going to all the various interesting destinations and watching the spectators scream with delight watching the young ladies play.
The girls need a break, as their limbs will be relieved at the break. Torn ligaments, swollen ankles and studded shins will breath a sigh of relief!
Most of all I will miss the humour and the comments by Thando. A good sense of humour, witty and very amusing young lady. She recently celebrated her 30th birthday, yet she still has the youthful looks and the stamina of a 16year old.

Winny



Katrina Maguire & Mantombi

Katrina & Gugu

Croesus Ladies

Croesus Ladies

Croesus Ladies

Winny



Thando and Katrina

Thando

Baby Gugu

Winny

Katrina Maguire



Mantombi

Sponsorship and Croesus Ladies Soccer

Sponsorships what a pain!!

I thought that sponsorship for a women's soccer team especially a developing side, would be easy to obtain. How wrong was I!! Sponsorships are a club you either belong to it or not. Take Nike for example, they love to sponsor celebrities. Their list consist of people like Tiger Woods, Oscar Pistorius and Lance Armstrong. Perhaps if our girls were into crime or drugs maybe Nike would consider sponsoring our team.

The criteria for sponsorship is that you have to either have a name like Kaiser Chief or Orlando Pirates. Then Vodacom will write out a cheque for R50 million, to develop the existing useless mens teams. Vodacom stop their sponsorship for the women's league, and I believe that women using that network should boycott it for 1 day. Unfortunately, women do not support women!

President Zuma emphasises his point that we must look after women and children. It's great to dedicate one day towards women, but what about the rest of the year? Do women only deserve 1 day of the year, are we that insignificant in the world? I suppose women never really make a fuss about what they achieve,  like men do, and how brilliant they are!

Sour grapes I call it on my side! Anyway I shouldn't be ungrateful. UMBRO decided to sponsor our kit for the season for the SASOL league, the one and only women's league in the country, how sad!!
Every year we come across the same teams, same look and same faces. The only difference is that we are all looking slightly older, perhaps a bit heavier on the hips. But life goes on Ce la Vivie!!

What can I say about SASOL, only their dedication towards women has been phenomenal. Please fill up at SASOL garages they deserve to get the business.

It's time to change situations, change the mind set. Men cannot seem to like the idea that women play a better game of soccer than they do.. OK our games are not as fast, but at least our technique is better and the game is not stopped every second of the time for fouling. I see so many ethnic kids and their delight to play the game and yet the facilities are non existent. Small observation, you cannot make money out of them, so throw them aside, see problem solved!!



Katrina Kat Maguire, (centre) Amanda and right Mantombi

What can I say, just keep playing and have faith. My dream for Croesus ladies to be invited to play overseas. Just the thought of this is enough to charge my batteries again and fight for these wonderful girls/ladies which deserve a very lucky break!

Croesus Ladies are just SIMPLY THE BEST!!

Time to concentrate on Womans Soccer - Bye AFCON

 BYE AFCON!!

It;s time to move on to Women's Soccer. Our men can't seem to do it. Change of manager, coach hundreds of thousand of rands spent, SAFA's and our nations hopes are once again crushed.
Why can't we give this amount of attention to our women? I believe if we did, they would make us proud, which would cause a larger embarrassment for our male soccer team.

After the London Olympics, our Minister of Sport Mr Fikile Mbalula stood up and spoke of the support and financial assistance that MUST be given to our women. Sadly enough, his statement left his lips and remained as a frozen bubble speech. Our Sports and recreation department only funds individuals, yet our local district football associations and SAFA will not register any team that does not belong anywhere. How are we ever going to get this right, when the left toe dangles out of the torn right shoe! That doesn't make sense! Well! that's what it's like dealing with our Sports and recreation department.

We are starting to prepare for our new season which is long overdue. The excitement and anticipation of new players joining Croesus and the surprises that await us. We will win the league this year. Our minds are set to destroy any competition that dares to take us on. Our ladies are talented and dedicated, which is a crying shame that a lot of our ladies  are deserving of a place in Banyana Banyan women's team. This must change! Coaches like Sheryl Botes are not deserving of their position. You could be the greatest player in the country, but if you do not want to stay at the High performance centre in Pretoria, well there goes your dreams you don;t get to play for your country!! Strange, most of the girls that play in the under 20 National team are nowhere to be seen in the soccer leagues. Nobody even knows that they exist.

Training twice a day at the High Performance Centre by Madame Botes must have been an embarrassment for her, when her players came across the newly formed JVW girls coached by Janine Van Wyk and won only by 4 goals to 0. Take in consideration that Janine's team only trained together once and was mixed with young players. It goes to show you, that you can have the qualifications and certificates as long as lake Victoria, but unfortunately cannot apply what you have learnt. This is the reason why our soccer in this country is where it is. Take Eric the Croesus coach, does not have the qualifications, but at least he can COACH!! Shame on you SAFA, time to re assess your coaches. Get rid of Sheryl Botes who only ever goes to scout players from Falcons and when she made her appearance at the Engen tournament, she basically spent a whole 5 minutes.

People like Janine, Eric and Greg Green who spend endless and trying times to up lift women's soccer deserve an acknowledgement in SAFA's hall of achievers!!

Janine Van Wyk

CROESUS VS GHANA

I got a very urgent call from Eric our coach, stating that he managed to organize a game for our Croesus ladies against the national team of Ghana U/20's.
I was thrilled, Eric has been talking about this game since July this year. I always say good things take time! Rushing around and  notifying our ladies at the last moment was a mission, as some needed to make travel arrangements and to take time off work.
As always, Croesus Ladies arrived in full force with the excitement and anticipation of playing against Ghana.
For the first half, Eric chose his strong and experienced players to tackle this team. Considering that most of our players had not been training for a month or so as the summer league had finished in May.
Croesus Ladies played strong and hard against these young fit Ghanaian s, but unfortunately human error Ghana scored in the first 5 minutes. This triggered Croesus and they played stronger and harder but we were not meant to score. Half time the score was Ghana 2 Croesus 0.
In the second half, Eric started replacing his older experienced players with his younger ones. I was so proud of these young girls as they played their hearts out only allowing 2 goals against Croesus , final score Ghana 4 Croesus 0.
What I like and enjoy about Eric our coach, is the fairness he displays to the girls. Most teams would not substitute their strong players for new or young players. Eric believes that everyone should get a chance. This is what I find so special about Croesus. Winning is everything even though people always say do your best, and it's not a problem if we loose! I don't believe this statement for a moment, people always remember a winner!
Well done Croesus Ladies in my eyes you are winners and always will be!

Croesus ladies and Ghana U20's

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Maimane Phiri - i diski yasekasi Tournament In Alex

Croesus ladies were entered in the Maimane Phiri Tournament. Our first two games were walk overs, and managed to secure our position in the semi finals.
The semi finals were played at Alex stadium, which I must say is quite a compact stadium, clean and well presented. For me it was the first time that I had seen this stadium. Going down a shabby street through iron gates, a warm and welcoming atmosphere awaits you at this stadium.
Phew! through to the finals. We managed to beat United Birds who also play in the Sasol league. In the first half, Croesus ladies were down 1-0, but I get the distinct feeling that the ladies from Croesus like living on the edge. After a nail biting experience, Croesus swiftly scored 3 goals in a matter of 15minutes, why did they wait so long?
Sunday was the finals, which we were to meet our opponents Alex ladies. While we were waiting, Eric our coach said to me to come and meet the gentleman who organizes this tournament every year.
I approached a rather tall looking man with a broad and pleasant smile. His body language was warm and friendly." Hello, nice to meet you" he said. I shook his hand and thanked him for his hospitality.
The Maimane Phiri the midfielder that represented South Africa in France in the 1998 FIFA World Cup. A brilliant player that played for Moroka Swallows, Ajax Cape Town, Jomo Cosmo and a few teams in Turkey. Phiri who is the creator of this tournament, and has put his time and effort back into his community is a man of honor.
His tournament was well run, lively and it was a great pleasure to be part of it all. What I like about this man, is the inclusion of women in his tournament. His generous prizes and his wonderful handouts to the community.
On behalf of Croesus Ladies we would like to thank Maimane Phiri for a wonderful tournamnet.
On a sad note for Alex, Croesus ladies were indeed the winners 2-0 of such a great tournament.



Croesus ladies

Words Runneth Over: “Diski Yase Kasi”

Words Runneth Over: “Diski Yase Kasi”