Surestream Academy win mini-tourney

Southern Region Football League (SRFL) Division One champions Surestream Academy at the weekend emerged winners of a mini-tournament that attracted three academy teams at Kamuzu Academy in Kasungu.

Surestream won both their games against Kamuzu Academy (KA) 3-1 and Lilongwe-based Play Football Malawi 3-0 to finish top with six points whereas Play Football Malawi, who won their other game 2-1 against KA finished second.

KA goalkeeper Peter Matumbo was named Player-of-the-tournament. Surestream’s Under-14 side drew 0-0 with their counterparts.

Surestream technical director Peter Mponda described the tournament, which was graced by Football Association of Malawi technical director John Kaputa, as fruitful.

“It wasn’t easy for us as we were up against some of the best academy teams on the land and we learnt quite a lot both tactically and technically.

“KA not only have excellent facilities, but they also have a good team and their management is committed to football development. For our boys, it was nice to be exposed to such kind of environment,” said Mponda.

KA physical education (PE) teacher and coach Mike Banda also described it as a good experience for his team.

“Looking at Surestream, they are more experienced because they play in a third-tier league and we learnt a lot from them. Both our opponents are established academies with good structures, but although we lost both games, the results were not a reflection of the games,” said Banda.

In the game between KA and Surestream, the hosts stunned the Blantyre-based side with an early goal through Benjamin Tembo, but Surestream reorganised themselves and equalised through Timothy Govati, who went on to claim a double before Tony Baisi added the third.