That Wits are yet to conceded a goal in the league is not pure coincidence and the Amakhosi technical team will take this into account as they prepare the team for the semifinal showdown against The Students on Saturday.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, Chiefs coach Ted Dumitru said while they would not pay an special attention to any specific individual or make special preparations for Wits, the Milpark-based team will be treated with the respect they deserve.

Here is what the coach had to say...

I think I once said this but I will reinforce it. This idea of a hoodoo team should be eradicated from our thinking. On the day, particularly in cup games any team can rise to the occasion and produce a winning performance.

If that accidentally happens twice or three times in a row that does not mean that team is a hoodoo. It could simply be that the other team simply didn't come with the right answers. Otherwise we will have all teams grouped in two with those who are hoodoos and those who are not.

The importance or excitement of this game does not come from this aspect in my opinion. It comes from the fact that lately Wits University have changed their philosophy. They brought more creative players into the old totally defensive system.

Wits now have players who display a bit flair and creativity in their game. Even the white contingent in their squad is quite skilful and that's a huge advancement from the old Wits playing and squad concept.

I am sure Roger de Sa is aware of what I am saying and I am sure he is using these elements to create a team that becomes both competitive as well as exciting. Yes it's true that they are not a fully attacking team yet.

They still have very strong traditions in the squad and in the line-up, which is to defend before you attack. That is displayed by their low scoring rate complimented by good defending, as they have so far scored nine goals in nine league games. I think the balance is still not what Roger would have expected.

On our part as I indicated, we don't look at special plans. We strongly believe that if we play our best or close to our best football, we don't need special preparations. Sure there are details that we have to take care of. For instance set pieces, counter-attack system of play they employ when they are under pressure. The opportunistic chances that are created almost from nothing as their players are quite forceful.

These are some of the details that we are preoccupied with but that does not mean we make special plan or preparations. We have to impose our game if we want to win and I prefer my opposition to be more worried.

With regards to players who came back late from national duty, the information we received initially was that we will have Bafana Bafana players on Sunday after playing on Saturday. But we were never told that there were changes in flights. That created problems in that we put up a training programme as from Monday including those players.

There was a period of two and half days that we were supposed to level the field preparations wise because the national team players went to a different training regime as from the rest of the squad. The difference was clear when they arrived and they are not as focused as before.

The only injuries we have are Rene Richards, who has a sciatic nerve and has to be rested for 10 days. We had a scare with Thabo Mooki who had a heart scare but we later realised that it was just a spasm and there was nothing serious. Stiga is still on his way to recovery from that groin injury and that will probably take another three to four weeks. He was just released for training by the doctors. Nhlanhla Kubeka is still a long way out.

This is a very important competition and if I am not wrong it carries the highest prize money in our soccer. That there is so much money creates some problems and my advice to the sponsors is that it would be much better for all parties concerned if we can have a two-leg format next year.

As it stands, if a team were to lose because of a bad mistake from the referee there will be no way of correcting that. The new format could easily be accommodated by playing matches on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. It was done before and there's no reason it cannot be done now.

The sponsors would also get better exposure through the new format. As it is we are putting a lot of pressure from players, referees and coaches as well.

If you look at the statistics you will realise that Coca-Cola Cup matches have been extremely competitive and you can also tell by the number of fouls committed. So we need to balance this competition to make it much attractive and probably even better.