It has been a while since I updated you on matters in our camp. Well, I know you value and appreciate this column and will endevour to keep you posted as much as possible. We have an important match coming up this weekend and we have really been hard at work preparing for that.

In our last two fixtures we had one negative and one positive result but I wouldn’t want to dwell much into those matches. The Telkom Knockout is a great competition and equally so we have a great challenge against Silver Stars and I think we should pay more attention to that.

Here we are playing against a team that is doing well and are top of the league and they will be highly motivated going into this match. But this is a different kettle of fish. It’s a cup game and we know what to do. The last time we played Wits in the first round of this competition and they were also top of the log and you all know what happened in that match.

I looked at Stars against Jomo Cosmos last weekend and thought they did well and deserved to win that match. Good for them.

We are preparing well for this game and I hope that Rowen Fernandez and Siphiwe Mkhoza, who played for Bafana Bafana against Egypt, will be back in time to join the team. We expect then by Friday morning and then we can assess them for any possible knocks.

There are no serious injury worries to talk about from the guys who are in camp. Shaun Bartlett had a minor flu infection, Kaizer Jr and Tiger Mototo had minor knocks. Siyabonga Nkosi did not train on Wednesday because of injury.

But our main focus should not be on the players who are injured, making a huge noise about that. Rather we should focus on what we have at hand. It does happen when you have two matches in three days that some guys will have some recovery work to do. We are playing on Sunday and this will give us an extra day for recovery in case of those who are injured.

Sure Rustenburg is very hot at times but that is not a concern. We train all the time in the afternoons under similar conditions and we should be able to acclimatize. There’s no need for us to train at the match one as we have played there before. We will train at our regular training grounds on Saturday and then travel to Rustenburg for the match.

I mentioned I did not want to focus much on the past matches but I must take note of the two players, Shaun Bartlett and Siyabonga Nkosi, who scored in the match against Swallows. It’s always good for a player’s confidence when he performs well or scores a goal. They both know it’s not all about scoring but about team-work and movement off the ball. There are many other players who also played well in the game and it’s very encouraging.

Cyril Nzama did not play against Swallows because of a third yellow card. Some players were out because of tough competition in the starting eleven and we are dealing with this matter in a very sensitive manner. We have to give them time to come back and do a better job as before.

With a view to Sunday’s match, it’s a different story but I will decide on Saturday morning. It is possible that some guys, based on their performance at training, could be back in the line-up.

Emile Baron is back at full training and we are considering taking him along for this match. There’s no need to rush as we still have a couple of training sessions before the match on Sunday. So far we have a lot of options and that’s great.

Finally, we always appreciate the support from our supporters and I am sure those who will be in Rustenburg will not be disappointed on the day.

Love and Peace!

Ersnt Middendorp


Kaizer Chiefs Head Coach