Sven Schilling wins in Pretoria

Saturday 7 December 2019, Pretoria, South Africa
The 2019 Pretoria season came to an end this weekend, and PFC was honoured by the visit of German player, Sven Schilling from St Pauli SC.

A cold, wet & rainy December day saw 8 participants compete for the 2019 PFC Copa del Clausura - we had two Groups of 4 players, where the top 2 from each Group were to progress to the knockout rounds. The bottom 2 from each Group would go on to contest the Plate section.

Group 1 delivered no surprises as Sven Schilling and Jayden vd Merwe progressed to the Copa del Clausura knock-out round. Perhaps the only surprise was that Kegan vd Merwe ended 3rd in Group 1 as he battled to find the superb form he had shown over the past 3 months. The pick of Group 1 action was the final Group match which ended Sven 1-1 Jayden. A match where Sven took the lead, and Jayden (patient as always) got the equaliser. In real time, it appeared as if Sven got the winner late on for a 2-1 win - with what seemed as if the ball struck the inside netting on it's way out again, but VAR operator (Bevin Reed) intervened to clearly point out that the ball struck the upright on it's way out instead! All academic in the end as both players were happy with the draw to progress to the semi finals.

Group 2 delivered a "mixed bag" of results, with Bevin Reed and Gary Downs progressing to the Copa del Clausura knock-out round. But there was enough drama in this Group - as Gary showed excellent goalkeeping skills to post an unbeaten run to justify his progression to the semi final. In Match 7, Julian vd Merwe caused an upset by dispatching of Chessray Jooste by 1-0. In Match 11, Chessray took a 1-0 lead over Bevin, but Bevin got the equaliser to top the group and confine Chessray to a Plate semi final!

The Plate Semi Final 1 produced an epic clash between Kegan vd Merwe and Chessray Jooste - with Kegan taking the lead after 5 min of play, for Chessray to equalise 2 min later. Chessray then took the lead with 5 min left to play, with Kegan getting the equaliser 3 min from the end. In the end, Chessray progressed by 2-1 on penalty shots. The Plate Semi Final 2 only came to life in the last 5 min of play as both Julian vd Merwe and Conway Julie started probing and attacking - drama unfolded as Julian got the winner with just 3 seconds left to play to progress to the Plate Final!
In the Plate Final, both Chessray and Julian made some good saves to keep the score at 0-0, then one defensive error by Julian allowed Chessray in to clinch the Plate Final by 1-0. Perhaps some "revenge" for Chessray as he overturned the 1-0 Group 2 loss to Julian!

The Cup Semi Final 1 saw Gary Downs score a stunner to take the lead over Sven Schilling after 9 min of play, with Sven producing an immediate response to score on 11 min and then on 13 min again to progress to the Cup Final. In the other Cup Semi Final, Bevin Reed scored after 6 min of play, with Jayden vd Merwe equalising 4 min later to force the match into a shoot-out. In the end, Bevin prevailed by 3-2 on shots over Jayden, for Bevin to set up a Cup Final against Sven.
A tense Cup Final then unfolded, with Bevin holding his own against our German visitor, but in the end Sven scored twice in the last third of the allocated time to run out as 2-0 winner, and in so doing Sven Schilling captured the 2019 PFC Copa del Clausura title!

In the end, a memorable and enjoyable day as the curtain drops on the 2019 PFC Season!

Individual acknowledgements on the day :
"Goal Blitz" : Sven Schilling ended the day as the top scorer, including the fastest goal on the day - timed at 45 sec vs Conway Julie
"Safe Hands" : Gary Downs for good goalkeeping skills all day
"Moment of the Day" : Kegan vd Merwe had the goal of the day in his final Group 1 match vs Conway Julie
"Player of the Day" : Bevin Reed - posting an unbeaten run on his way to the final vs Sven Schilling

As always, a big thank you to all who attended to make the day a great success. A BIG thanks goes out to Sven Schilling for competing in his first Pretoria event !!!!
Next - the PFC 2019 Season Awards on Saturday 14 December 2019.

The PFC website & facebook page will be updated shortly with photo's & news content at http://www.facebook.com/pages/PFC-SA/519566284755728

(report by Julian vd Merwe)