While Chiefs made the kind of start that Muhsin Ertugral was hoping for, a number of the other title contenders found the going a bit more difficult on the opening day of matches.

With Ajax Cape Town, SuperSport United, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns all on the losing end after their first matches of the new season, Amakhosi captain Cyril Nzama believes that the race for the 2007 – 2008 season will be one of the most open in the twelve year history of the PSL.

The Amakhosi captain and Bafana Bafana defender is also relieved that Chiefs have gotten the new season off by bringing home three points and has praised his team mates for their courage on Wednesday and he signaled out the five Chiefs debutants who started the game against Benoni for particular praise.

OPEN SEASON

With a host of surprise results on the opening day of the season, Nzama believes that The Amakhosi cannot be complacent against any team this season, as he believes that the 16 teams in the PSL have assembled their strongest squads yet.

With a vast amount of wealth available to all the teams the opening days results bare testimony to the fact that there is no team that can be labeled as a minnow in the PSL any more.

Nzama added “While it might come as shock to see a number of the title favourites losing on the first day, I think that we can expect more of those kind of results throughout the next nine months of league action. The thing is that I am sure that this is going to be one of the most competitive and open seasons that I have played in yet”. He continued on by adding “All of the teams in this league have strong squads and we had first hand experience as United stretched us all the way on Wednesday evening, so to win the league this season we will need to consistently play well, and should set aim to not dropping any points especially in the opening five to ten games of the campaign”.

FIGHTING START

As Chiefs fellow title contenders Sundowns and Pirates faltered on the opening day it was important for The Amakhosi to open up their account for the new season with three points which they duly did, as they defeated Benoni for the first time away from home.

The Chiefs skipper has come out and sung the praise for his team’s gutsy showing against Benoni saying, “the conditions on Wednesday night were very difficult to play in as it was very cold and the wind was also quite strong.

Regardless of these issues the guys played well the midfield created a lot of chances for the front men, the strikers were unfortunate not to have scored more goals and at the back we were able to start off with a clean sheet which was good for us”.

With six players playing for the first time for Chiefs in a PSL game, Nzama was pleased with the way the new boys fitted in, adding “it is always a tough challenge for a new player to fit into the scheme of play of a new team. Credit to the new guys and the coaching staff as we all worked very hard in the off season towards getting the guys to gel and play well to each others strengths, the overall result and performance from Wednesday has most definitely been a confidence booster for us”.

Chiefs are not in action this coming weekend but their next assignment will be against Jomo Cosmos next Saturday in Durban.

Nzama is looking forward to leading Chiefs to their first league victory over Cosmos in more than three seasons.