Away day: Ocean View

It starts in Hout Bay, hours before kick-off. Kit bags out of The Dream Factory, hoods up, headphones in. Then the bus with the rainbow down its side, and the long road round the mountain.

We pull in beside a mural in Ocean View that says it better than any team talk could. Believe you can.

Inside, the changeroom fills up. Boots on, socks taped, the tactics board propped up on the bench. Not much talking yet.

Then, before a ball is kicked, the gwijo. It starts with one voice and ends with the whole room. Hands clapping, eyes closed, the walls doing their best to hold it in.

By kick-off it is dark and cold, and the floodlights are doing all the work. Out on the pitch the warm-up turns to the walk-out, and in the stands the hoodies come out. Ninety minutes later, it finishes 1-1, with Sipho Melani on the scoresheet for us. A point on the road, earned the hard way.

Ocean View came out for it. The ground sits right under the mountain, with houses looking down on the pitch. Families on the terraces, kids by the fence, regulars in the stand, and one supporter in a wheelchair watching from behind the goal.

Then the huddle, the kit bags, and the bus again. Quieter this time. City lights out of the window, back round the mountain, back to Hout Bay.

This is ABC Motsepe League football. It is not the PSL, not yet. But it is where every dream in our dressing room starts, and it is where we will be again next week.