By Rex Mphisa
BEITBRIDGE’S role model social soccer outfit Soccer Sunday Reloaded (SSR) will this Sunday raise Beitbridge and Matabeleland South flag high representing the province playing in the US$25 million Munhumutapa Cup against Mkoba City.
The match setting up a clash for social soccer sides in knockout tournaments of the cash-rich national Cup is set for Zvishavane.
SSR chairman Simon Ndlovu on Friday notified the team members they had been selected to represent the province in the games.
“Good day fellow Reloaded members. Please be advised that we have been invited to play Munhumutapa Cup in Zvishavane this Sunday 21st representing Mat South social clubs,” wrote Ndlovu on the team’s social Media Group.
“In as much as we don’t play competitive soccer after some deliberations with the executive we found it prudent to fulfill this national call-up and kind gesture though it came as a short notice,” he said.
He said a fee of R200 for transport has been pegged for those willing to travel, first preference to players who are competitive in the field of play since it shall be a knockout match.
“Other logistics will follow from various departments. We apologise for the short notice as we only received the communication from ZIFA a bit late,” he said.
At least 30 members of the 60 member strong team had already paid for the trip and leave Beitbridge early in what promises to be an exciting fixture.
The ZIFA Munhumutapa Challenge Cup is a historic, nationwide knockout football tournament in Zimbabwe, launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to transform and develop the sport from the grassroots to elite levels. It is the largest financial investment in domestic football history.
In Beitbride the two active Division One sides Dulibadzimu and Vhembe Stars Academy football clubs in the Central Region Division One have since been knocked out in their categories of active soccer sides.
SSR will continue from its last assignment when it won an international tournament involving South African teams from the Immigration Department and Border Management Authority of that side played at Ronnies Sports Arena.
In that tournament SSR drew its match with SA Immigration but went on to beat Zimbabwe Immigration and SA’s BMA to emerge victorious with superior goal difference against SA’s BMA.
The exciting friendly tournament was meant to create stronger relationships between Beitbridge and Zimbabwe’s community ay at Beitbridge with their SA counterparts who interact daily because of their location at the boundary of the two countries.
SSR continues to break new grounds in social soccer after partnering Tshidixwa Secondary School where it built toilets at the school grounds it uses as its home grounds.
Membership of the team comprises a cross section of the society of Beitbridge proud to promoting self-wellness through soccer while helping needy children at Tshidixwa.
Other activities of the club have been assisting the girl child with sanitary pads and planting trees at the institution where the soccer team assumed payment and cleared an electricity bill that had nagged the school for long recently.