Chiefs began putting the ‘icing’ on their preparations for their Telkom Charity Cup opener against PSL Champions Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday, when they took on the Styles Phumo coached South African under twenty at what can only be described as a frozen FNB Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.

Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp trounced up and down the touchline, not in his usual manner shouting instructions to his players on Wednesday afternoon he was just trying to keep warm. As the wind swept through the stadium late afternoon on Wednesday those who did not have to stand outside decided to head for covers as they watched a thrilling four goal spectacular.

Styles Phumo, whose team are in the midst of preparing for an African Under 20 qualifying game against Zimbabwe on Sunday, had four Chiefs players in his team which included first team goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune.

It was Amajita who took the lead early in the first half and there was a Chiefs connection to the goal in more ways than one, as Amakhosi under 19 player Sibusiso Hadebe took advantage of a Patrick Mayo slip up at the back and beat Ryan Wuest to give Amajita the lead.

Chiefs though were soon back in the game as Serge Djiehoua sent Itumeleng Khune the wrong way from the penalty spot to bring Chiefs back into the game. As half time approached Chiefs fell behind after another lapse in concentration at the back Excellent Walaza made the most of the opportunity gifted to him as he brought some comfort to Styles Phumo by doubling Amajita’s score.

Ernst Middendorp made a number of substitutions at the start of the second half and one of them was the introduction Luis Agyemang, who from the kick off proved to be a more of a nuisance to the Amajita defense than the weather.

It was after some good work by Agyemang that Chiefs found an equalizer after the loose ball had fallen to David Radebe, he wasted no time in drilling the ball into the back of the net, Chiefs did go close to finding a winner late on but David Radebe’s close range header skimmed the top of the cross bar.

Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp did not read much into his team’s performance but did say afterwards “the weather really played a part in this game not being as open as it could have been; on a different point I needed some guys like David Radebe to play ninety minutes against competitive opposition which he got against these guys. We have really got what we were looking for out of this game although winning might have been better I feel that it was beneficial playing against Amajita”.

Amakhosi goalkeeper coach Rainer Dinkelacker who was in attendance at the FNB Stadium on Wednesday afternoon commented on the performance of Itumeleng Khune by saying “the fact that Khune plays with our guys every day really helped him, he knew what our strengths are. He used this to his advantage effectively and over all he played well although he did make a couple of technical errors, he did have a good game as the goal he conceded was from the penalty spot” (Khune was substituted at half time).

As both teams headed off the field at the end of the game Ernst Middendorp turned around and gave the famous FNB turf another look, as the Chiefs coach will be hoping his next journey down the FNB tunnel after a game will see him walking away victorious after beating the PSL Champions.