Amakhosi defender Thomas Sweswe says he cannot wait for Saturday’s Telkom Knockout Cup Final which will see Chiefs face their historical rivals and Soweto neighbors Orlando Pirates at what is expected to be a sold out FNB Stadium on Saturday evening.

The Zimbabwean international has told kaizerchiefs.com that the excitement is reaching fever pitch ahead of the first cup final to be contested between the teams since the 2005 - 2006 season.

As he said “everyone is excited about this game, all the guys are looking forward to the game and it is not just the fans here in South Africa who are waiting for kick off, my family and friends in Zimbabwe have been telling me that fans over there are just as excited about the game.”

Sweswe believes that despite all the excitement and hype building around the game, the Amakhosi are well focused and know exactly what to expect when they run out in what will be Chiefs 15th appearance in the final of the Telkom Knockout Cup from when the competition was first contested in 1984.

“We want to defend our title and everything else does not matter to us, people have been saying that Pirates have never won this competition which could help us. The thing is the historical facts don’t play the game, we do and we have to go out there and be composed and implement our game plan effectively.”

Having already faced Pirates three times this season once in the league and prior to that in the two legs of the MTN 8 Cup semi-finals Sweswe believes the Amakhosi have a good idea of what they will encounter during Saturday’s cup final.

Of this he explained, “the game will be played at a high tempo Pirates are not a team who are going to sit back and wait for us to come at them. I am expecting a fast game with both teams playing exciting football and finding scoring easy at the moment we can’t expecting anything but a fast attacking game.”

While Sweswe has stated that historical data will not determine the outcome of the game, it is history that is spurring him on ahead of the final. “It will be wonderful if we can write our names in the history books by winning the Telkom Knockout cup twice in one year, we did win the trophy in April and doing it again eight months later will be a fantastic achievement for the club” concluded Sweswe.