*Caption: South African players celebrating the goal scored by Khanyisa Mayo

Written by: Menelisi Ndwandwe

The South Africa National U19 team have booked a spot in the semi-finals after dismantling TP Mazembe by 6-0 in a match day 4 of the Durban Under 19 International Football Tournament at Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium in Clermont on Sunday.

The TP Mazembe and National U19 were predicted to be a tough encounter as both teams won their opening matches but proved to be a walk in the park for David Nontaone’s boys.

Luthando Matenza capitalised on TP Mazembe’s confusion at the back and secured an early goal within 3 minutes of the first half. Mazembe responded with a goal in 13th minutes but it was denied, Kisangala was offside.

SA U19 dominated TP Mazembe in the first half and that saw Khanyisa Mayo converting a beautiful goal in the 47 minutes and the first half ended 2-0 in favour of SA National U19.

In the second half Mayo continued with his scoring ways netting a beautiful goal in the 53 minutes , two minutes later at 55 minutes SA U19 came back with a thriller of a goal courtesy of the Captain Thendo Mukumela.

In the 60th minute, Mayo released a thunderous shot that left TP Mazembe goalie asking himself where it came from, completing his hat trick and making him the current tournament leading goal scorer with 5 goals.

SA National U19 is now sitting on top of group B with 6 points and 9 goals. The second match of the day also lived up to the expectations, producing 7 goals.

Fluminense was the first to score in the 15th minute courtesy of Alves and a minute later Rangers responded with a goal from Zak Rudden ending the first half with 1 all.

In the second half, Rangers was all over the Samba Boys scoring brilliant two goals in the 69th and 76th minutes. Fluminense managed to secure an equaliser in the 78 minutes bringing the score to 3-3 all. A penalty in 90+ minutes secures Fluminense a win and the game ended 4-3 in favour of Fluminense.

As part of the tournament’s social responsibility programme, Rangers FC will visit Umqhele High School at 10h00 am on Monday and Fluminense will visit Ziphathele High School at 12h00 in Clermont.