A local scout has admitted to being totally shocked by one young talented player's performance in the girls' 2024 Engen Knockout Challenge final in Johannesburg this past weekend, while he also heaped big praise on three other promising teenagers.
Speaking to Soccer Laduma this week, University of Johannesburg coach Karabo Mogudi spent time analysing the talent on display in the girls' division. Mogudi, also a coach for South Africa's U20 national team, said one girl's display against champions Mamelodi Sundowns was so good, it left him in awe.
Mogudi on JVW Girls midfielder Julia Goncalves...
Watching her… yikes! Watching her reminds me of… funnily enough, we've got this player at UJ called Ayesha Moosa and they both remind me of Andres Iniesta. Their ball manipulation is something else. And you know what? You might say, 'Hey coach, why you mention race?', but I think she's got a black soul, man. She's got this flair about her. I'm thinking, 'Jeez, Julia Goncalves, who would have thought/'. But maybe her Iberian roots are showing off. I think she is Portuguese at home, and she is a very good ball manipulator. She's a good dribbler, she is aggressive going forward, she's very intelligent. She takes shots from distance. In the second line, in the No. 10 position or in the No. 8 position, in the right half-space, she is very good in those tight spaces. You think you've got her cornered, and then a flick or a spin and she is out of pressure!
Mogudi on Sundowns' Katlego Malebane...
When I'm watching her, I'm thinking she's a cross between Themba Zwane and a Lebohang Maboe there at Sundowns. She operates in that half-space on the left, but she models her game on Linda Motlhalo. She says she likes Linda and her passing, her final passes, her passing through channels. She is exactly like that. She holds the ball well in the half-spaces, she also manipulates the ball, she is very calm. She is the captain, meaning she is a very good leader. You can see that in how she passes instructions and speaks to her teammates, you know? She is a very good player! She comes from a very good system of development. Her achievements over the past two years have been awesome. She's a VW champion in 2022, a Promotional League champion in 2023 in Pretoria. She's a GDWL champion in 2023. She's a runner-up in the Orlando Pirates Cup this year, in 2024, and an Engen Knockout Challenge champion in 2024! She's also been to a training camp at FC Porto, so this is a young girl, born in 2009, going places.
Mogudi on UJ's Adrielle Mibe
When I mention multi-positional or multi-functional, this is the girl. This is the girl! When we profiled her, we profiled her as an attacker as someone who likes to take people on, as someone who is powerful going forward who plays wing. She can play with the left, she can play with the right. You know, if you've got that balance, what more do you need? She was born in 2007. As I mentioned, she is an attacker, a forward, a winger, but guess what? I think her best performance was against Sundowns in the final in midfield playing as a No. 8 or almost as a central defensive midfielder. She defended against the Sundowns attackers. In this game, Sundowns had no space because of her. She was always in the right position, she defended well. I was thinking and questioning myself, thinking, 'Jeez, man. Is this the right player we profiled in those first few games?' What a performance in that final. UJ have won the past two tournaments and she was involved in those two tournaments. She's an Engen winner twice, in 2022 and 2023. In that final, she did five times the amount of work required of her. Remember, the Sundowns team is very technical and very good on the ball, so for her to dominate them, definitely, I was awe-struck. I was shocked… in a good way!
Mogudi on promising Wits University goalkeeper Manana Myeki...
They say they just recruited her a month ago or something! When I asked where they knew her from, they said they invited her to train and saw she was a top goalkeeper. For me, behind Casey Gordon, who was the top goalkeeper of the tournament, I think she was next in line. When they played UJ in the group stage, she was standing in the way of UJ scoring 10 goals or so. The coaches rotate teams when they're already through to the knockout stages, so they rotated and even though UJ did too, they still had a strong squad. Instead of the 1-0 win UJ got, it should have been 10! But she was very strong in goals, always in the right position.
