Soccer season kicks off

Update

KNYSNA The 2019/2020 KLFA Domestic League season officially kicked off last weekend, with a total of five games taking place on match day 1 of the new season including two matches for the newly promoted clubs.

It has been three months since the 2018/2019 season of the Knysna Local Football Association (KLFA) Domestic League concluded, with Young Boys crowned as the local winners while El Classico and United Brothers were relegated to the KLFA Super League, Knysna's second division.

El Classico and United Brothers' relegation saw room for two teams to be promoted to the Domestic League from the Super League, and Pine Stars and Slow Town were the two lucky teams.

While there has been plenty of soccer action in the three months since the league concluded, there was no official league action until the new season kicked off at Knysna's Loerie Park and Sedgefield's Grassy Park on Saturday 26 October. Neither Pine Stars nor Slow Town had played Domestic League before, and both teams were thrown straight into the action with a game each on match day 1.

Loerie Park would play host to three of the five fixtures of the day, of which one was Pine Stars' encounter with African Roots who finished fifth last season. It was always going to be a tough welcome for the newcomers but they put up a very good fight, never looking out of the game. African Roots would, however, just edge the rookie side 2-1 to get their season off to a good start.

The other newcomers were faced with the toughest start they could've asked for, coming up against defending champions Young Boys on Grassy Park. Sadly Slow Town wasn't quite up to the task, and was beaten 7-1 by Young Boys who got their season off to the best possible start.

The other three fixtures of the day saw Oyster Fest runners-up CX Swallows lose 2-0 to FC Rebels, 2018/2019 third-placed side Flamingo FC lose 1-0 to Red Eagles, and 2018/2019 Domestic League runners-up Smuts United win 4-2 against Ocean Eleven.

There was also SAB League action over the weekend between FC United and CX Celtics, with the two sides playing out to a 1-1 draw.

Curtley Erasmus takes a corner for Pine Stars.