Posted in News on Mar 14, 2002.
Egypt Trip Report
Thursday, 14th March 2002
From: Vivi & Putco
Hola Makhosi!
The end of the day yesterday had a mixture of very funny episodes. Before we get there, let’s just update you on the team.
The first training session was very interesting, technical and full of energy. All the boys are fired up, from the goal-keepers to the strikers. Coach Muhsin Ertugral took the team for some loosening but technical ball work.
Jabu Pule, Arthur Zwane, Stanton Fredericks and Thabo Mooki were at their best with their dazzling skills. The player to look out for is definitely little Rene Richards who celebrated his 19th birthday yesterday. To his surprise, the team had organised a birthday cake and everyone sang joyously for him.
Rene thanked everyone and gave a touching speech which thanked everyone for their support throughout his stay at Kaizer Chiefs; the boy is definitely mature for his age and has a great future with Chiefs – Happy Birthday Rene from all the Amakhosi!
Our first training session was watched by about 50 people, including local No1 newspaper journalists taking photographs and conducting interviews with Putco and the coach. The local newspapers had all sorts of positive profiling stories about Kaizer Chiefs and some of the individual players.
What is clear to us by now is that huge research has been conducted about the team’s performance, these papers have details of all the success enjoyed by the club and are taking Chiefs very seriously.
What is strange here in Egypt is that teams in fierce rivalry support visiting teams at the expense of their local compatriots, the Zamalek and Ismailia fans support and wish Amakhosi the best of luck, claiming Chiefs are well-placed to beat Al Ahly, who are lying third on the log behind Zamalek and Ismailia respectively.
Back to the funny episodes off the field now:
Egyptians have a strange way of speaking English> In fact, instead of offering you a cigarette the traditional way, they will ask you "You drink?" meaning "do you smoke?".
And that’s not all, a journalists approached Putco to ask him for his name and says "My name?" meaning "what’s your name".
Enough to say that now the whole of the KC camp is speaking Egyptian/English: "many car for parking" meaning "enough parking bays"; "my husband?" meaning "is this your husband?"; "everything ready?" meaning "is everything alright?" Yoh!!!
Soon after training we came back to the hotel and Putco and Vivi decided to play a game of tennis as they felt a bit inactive after having attended the players training session the whole afternoon.
So with the technical advice of Captain Chincha coaching from the balcony of his room, the game started. Putco underestimated his tough Italian colleague who gave him a rough time with her vicious serves and unstoppable backhands who procured him a back injury.
Now Putco is a regular patient of Dr Phil Maepa and of our physio David Milner. "Sorryyyyyy!"
The night wasn’t over - the KC officials were invited for dinner on the River Nile on a boat cruise by the Al Ahly directors. The dinner was delicious in a divine environment. Cairo by night is something really worth experiencing.
The lights, the glamour and glitz with a mix of contemporary and ancient Egyptian architectures, is an awesome sight. Cairo is a truly modern metropolitan where you can find traffic even at late hours of the night.
On the boat we were graced by the exotic movements of a belly dancer and of course Putco couldn’t resist the temptation of dancing with her and showing off his Kwasa kwasa skills, which later aggravated his back injury even more.
Back to the team now: the boys have gone to training and will be having another session later today at 19h30 at the stadium where the game will be played.
The players were in top form this morning and to give them even more of a boost we put on the BOP tape on the bus so the boys could jive on their way to training , "everybody knows ah-ah, everybody know its Kaizer Chiefs"... You know what I am shayin'!!!!!
Must go check on Putco now, in the mean time………..
Till later... Love & Peace!!
