Having only got back to his Tshwane hotel in the early hours of Friday morning as The Amakhosi made a triumphant return back from The Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Rustenburg, where they defeated arch rivals Orlando Pirates for the fourth time in five matches in just under a year.

With Thursday night’s victory over Pirates The Amakhosi now have a better record of wins against their arch rivals in Vodacom Challenge Matches. It was thus surprising to see that Kaizer Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp was able to join his Manchester United counter part Sir Alex Ferguson for a pre – Vodacom Challenge Final press conference held at Voda World in Midrand. In a break from tradition the conference was held in a marquee along side a temporary soccer field erected at Vodaworld.

The temporary field has been used by Manchester United since their arrival in the country as a show case for the Manchester United Soccer Schools, in conjunction with Vodacom and the United Schools Sports Association of South Africa hundred of young girls and boys have been able to get the same kind of training that the Manchester United players go through on a daily basis.

Back to the business of Saturday’s final and Sir Alex Ferguson was quizzed about which of the Chiefs players he thought would be key men for The Amakhosi on Saturday to which he added “I thought that Shaun Bartlett played a particularly well and you could see he was a handful, Chiefs dominated the game. Soccer is such you can not dominate for 90 minutes and Pirates did have some chance but because they were chasing the game it was evident Chiefs were going to get another goal”. It was not just the antics of the former English Premier league player Shaun Bartlett who caught Sir Alex’s attention as the Manchester United coach added. “What also impressed me about Chiefs play was their inter passing and short passing game, the players linked up particularly well and they looked comfortable when picking each other out whether in short or long balls” Alex also commented on the fact that Shaun Bartlett’s ability in the air troubled the Pirates defence.

On the other hand Kaizer Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp looked particularly relaxed at the press conference and smiled right the way through as he added “against Pirates we made many changes to the starting line up and the guys really made strong claims to play regularly. During pre season preparation one needs to give the guys enough game time as possible and you need to demonstrate to all your players in the team that you trust in their abilities to deliver a good result for us”. The buoyant Chiefs coach also added that should players the likes of Serge Djiehoua who have been out with illness and injury of late be given a clear bill they could get a run out on Saturday afternoon.

About Saturday’s final Middendorp commented “we are very pleased with the way we played against Man United on Tuesday and Pirates on Thursday and although there is still a lot of room for improvement I think we are heading in the right direction”. He is equally confident that Chiefs can take United all the way again and spring a surprise on the Red Devils adding “for us we can only improve on Tuesday’s performance and we are aware of what we are up against and have once again be thorough in our preparations for the game”.

After the press conference the Manchester United coach headed for the training round as his team rounded off their preparations for Saturday’s final with an hour long session at the St Stithians College in the warm Johannesburg mid day sun. What was supposed to be a quiet session behind closed doors was anything but as students from the school opted to watch the Red Devils train instead of attend class, there were it is estimated close onto 1 500 people at the Manchester United training session on Friday afternoon. Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp headed for the training ground via the home of former State President Nelson Mandela; The Amakhosi had a late afternoon training session at the University of Pretoria and were not greeted at the training ground by the same kind of chaos which met Man United in Randburg.

Sail the company organizing the Vodacom Challenge declared late on Friday afternoon that tickets for the much awaited clash had been sold out. The game which will be played at Vodacom Loftus in Pretoria will kick off at 15h15 and will be live on SABC, Manchester United are expected to fly out of South Africa straight after the game.