2009–10 National First Division

2009–10 National First Division, was the season from August 2009 until February 2010, of South Africa's second tier of professional football. By the end of the season, the Coastal stream champion Vasco da Gama met to play the overall championship final, against the Inland stream champion Black Leopards. Vasco da Gama won the final, and thereby got promoted to Premier Soccer League. The subsequent playoff stage, was contested by the losing finalist, two second ranked teams of the NFD streams, and the second lowest ranked team of PSL. Winner of the playoff stage, and thereby the second promotion to PSL, was the team Mpumalanga Black Aces.

National First Division

Season	2009–10
Champions	Vasco Da Gama
Relegated	Ikapa Sporting Winners Park
Matches played	170
Goals scored	451 (2.65 per match)
← 2008–09 2010–11 →

Season structure

The league is made up of 16 teams, split into 2 streams. Each team plays the other 7 teams in their stream 3 times, for a total of 21 games. Teams receive 3 points for a win, 1 for draw, and 0 for a loss. At the end of the season, the top ranked team from each stream play in a two-legged final, the winner of which is crowned National First Division Champion, and gains automatic promotion to the Premier Soccer League for the next season. The loser of the final, along with the teams which came second in their streams, and the 15th placed PSL team, go into the PSL promotion play-offs. The two teams finishing in last place in their streams are automatically relegated to the Vodacom League. They are replaced by the finalists of the Vodacom League championship game.

Clubs

Coastal stream			Inland stream
Team	City		Team	City
Bay United	Port Elizabeth		African Warriors	Phuthaditjhaba
Carara Kicks	Welkom		Batau	Ermelo
FC Cape Town	Cape Town		Black Leopards	Thohoyandou
Hanover Park	Cape Town		Dynamos	Polokwane
Ikapa Sporting	Cape Town		University of Pretoria	Pretoria
Nathi Lions	Durban		United	Kimberley
Thanda Royal Zulu	Durban		Winners Park	Polokwane
Vasco da Gama	Cape Town		Witbank Spurs	Witbank

League standings

Coastal Stream

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Vasco da Gama	21	11	5	5	31	20	+11	38	NFD Coastal Stream Champions 2009/2010
2	Nathi Lions	21	9	9	3	31	19	+12	36	Qualified for PSL promotion play-offs
3	Bay United	21	10	5	6	20	19	+1	35
4	Carara Kicks	21	7	6	8	30	30	0	27
5	Thanda Royal Zulu	21	6	9	6	29	29	0	27
6	F.C. Cape Town	21	6	7	8	21	26	−5	25
7	Hanover Park	21	5	5	11	18	28	−10	20
8	Ikapa Sporting	21	4	6	11	23	32	−9	18	Relegated to the Vodacom League

Source:

Inland Stream

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Black Leopards	21	13	2	6	42	22	+20	41	NFD Inland Stream Champions 2009/2010
2	African Warriors	21	12	4	5	29	22	+7	40	Qualified for PSL promotion play-offs
3	Witbank Spurs	21	10	4	7	32	28	+4	34
4	Batau	21	7	7	7	29	25	+4	28
5	Dynamos	21	7	5	9	21	29	−8	26
6	University of Pretoria	21	7	4	10	23	29	−6	25
7	United	21	6	7	8	21	29	−8	23
8	Winners Park	21	5	3	13	26	39	−13	18	Relegated to the Vodacom League

Source:
Notes:

Post season

NFD Final

Vasco da Gama and Black Leopards played a two legged tie to determine the 2009–10 NFD champion, and automatic promotion to the PSL. Vasco da Gama won the tie to become NFD champions, and were promoted to the PSL for the 2010–11 season.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Black Leopards	2–3	Vasco da Gama	1–1	1–2

Promotion playoffs

Black Leopards (losing finalist), Nathi Lions (2nd in coastal stream), African Warriors (2nd in inland stream), and Mpumalanga Black Aces (15th in PSL), all entered into the promotion playoffs. This playoff competition was played as a cup with two legged matches. The two semifinals were played simultaneously at 17 and 24 March, and the two legged final took place at 3 and 8 April. The two teams to qualify for the final were Black Leopards and Mpumalanga Black Aces, and after ordinary time of the two matches, the aggregate score ended at 3–3, and thus a penalty shoot out. When the first 5 ordinary shots had been completed, there was a winning score of 5–3 to Mpumalanga Black Aces, who thereby had managed to retain their PSL status.

Semifinals:

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Black Leopards	6–3	African Warriors	4–0	2–3
Mpumalanga Black Aces	4–2	Nathi Lions	2–2	2–0

Promotion Play Off Final:

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Mpumalanga Black Aces	3–3 (5–3 penalty)	Black Leopards	1–2	2 – 1

External links

• PSL.co.za