Posted in News on Apr 21, 2007.
The team were greeted upon their arrival at Port Elizabeth airport by a small band of supporters who had come from various areas around the bay area, as well as a group of supporters from Gauteng. After lunch and a short nap it was off to the Nelson Mandela Bay University for a mid afternoon training session, for The Amakhosi and it was a session held very windy conditions and Chiefs have been told to expect similar weather on Sunday afternoon when they tackle Santos.
The Chiefs training session was made all the more challenging due to the strong winds, which caused Amakhosi coach Kosta Papic to comment: “We had not expected the wind to be so strong, thankfully we have had this session which has assisted us in getting used to playing with this strong wind. Whether it be behind or backs or us having to face it head on, it took us some time to get accustomed to but I think by the end of the session the guys were able to use their elements to their advantage.”
While The Phefeni Glamour boys had to travel to Port Elizabeth minus Tinashe Nengomasha, Cyril Nzama, Gert Schalkwyk as well as club top scorer for the current season Kaizer Motaung Junior.
Papic has pronounced himself happy with the fact that both Siyabonga Nkosi and Shaun Bartlett have been declared fit for Sunday’s game and are available for selection, as Papic said “we were making contingency plans as we had at one stage thought that Shaun Bartlett might not make the journey to Port Elizabeth. Thankfully he is fine and will be available to play Sunday, having to have entered the game with him and Kaizer Junior out might have made Sunday’s game a bit more trickier for us we are just glad that he is available for the game”.
Chiefs opponents on Sunday Santos who had opted to move the game from their base in Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, took it easy on Saturday afternoon but did have early evening training session. While Santos could pull their feat off the gas for Sunday’s game as they could well be focussing on who they will face in the ABSA Cup Semi – Finals in a fortnights time, Chiefs will be concentrating on gaining the maximum number of points from the game as The Amakhosi aim to seal their place for next seasons SAA Supa8 competition.