Selecao Futsal Club from Swakopmund retained the Ongos Winter Cup when they beat the X Men 3-0 in the final at the Windhoek Showgrounds on Saturday.
It was the second time in three years that they had won the trophy after they also beat the X Men in the 2022 final, while the tournament did not take place last year.
The coastal team dominated the final from the start with their fine tactical display and domination of ball possession, giving the X Men few chances of note.
Leighton Wemmert opened their account when a shot by Vilho Lawrence deflected off him into the goals, while Nigel Prins made it 2-0 after an intricate buildup of quick short passes.
Selecao sealed the victory midway through the second half when a corner kick deflected off the X Men’s goalie into the net.
Selecao were full value for the win after a dominant tournament during which they also beat the defending league champions Quality Futsal Club 1-0 in the semifinals, with Wemmert scoring the winning goal.
The other semifinal between the X Men and Windhoek Futsal Club was a thriller and had to be decided on penalties after a full time score of 3-3.
Jamal Jacobs scored two and Junior Paulse one goal for the X Men, while Denzel Mulunga, Kagiso Daniel and Daku Nauta scored for Windhoek Futsal in normal time, before the X Men won the shootout 3-2.
Selecao also dominated the individual awards, with Nigel Prins winning the player ofthe tournament award, while Vilho Lawrence was the top goal scorer with nine goals.
Karere Tsauseb of the X Men won the goalie ofthe tournament award.
Selecao’s captain Warren Theron thanked Ongos for investing in the tournament.
“It’s great that Ongos put a tournament up here in Windhoek, it’s great news for us because we like to come here and display our talents and the type of futsal that we play in Swakop,” he said.
“It’s going to be great for the development of futsal because we have a lot of numbers coming to check out the teams playing and following their results on social media so its exciting for the fans as well, so the exposure just keeps on growing,” he added.
Theron said the standard of futsal had improved a lot since they last won the title.
“Actually it was a lot different this time because the game has grown a lot. We had our national team just a few months back at Afcon so that opened our minds a lot and broadened our vision about what futsal actually means, so it was much more tactical this time around than last time around,” he said.
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