Posted in News on May 14, 2007.
The Amakhosi were led to victory on Sunday by Jimmy Tau, who was outstanding in both defence as well as in attack, as he was the source of two of Chiefs three goals on Sunday. Tau, who played like a man possessed, puts the reason for his golden performance against Maritzburg down to historical reasons, and one would need to go back to the start of the millennium to find the motivation behind Tau’s star turn on Sunday.
Prior to joining the ranks as a professional footballer in February 2002 when he signed his first professional contract with Orlando Pirates, Tau was marshalling the defence for Maritzburg City in the Vodacom League. From the start of the 2000-2001 season until his departure for the PSL in February 2002, Tau turned out in the lower leagues for City who shared a great rivalry with Maritzburg United. The tightly contested Pietermaritzburg derby matches were played at the cities Harry Gwala Stadium, the venue of Chiefs demolition of Maritzburg United on Sunday.
For Tau going back to the Harry Gwala Stadium was a trip down memory lane and he was not going to let him self down at his old hunting ground and against a former foe he did not need any motivating going into Sunday’s game.
“When we drove up the hill towards the Harry Gwala Stadium on Sunday, I became really emotional as this was the place where my football career really took off. When I was with Maritzburg City every weekend when I came to the ground I knew that one day I would make it into the PSL, as a result going back to the Harry Gwala Stadium with Kaizer Chiefs was really an emotional occasion for me,” said Tau of Chiefs weekend trip to the Kwa Zulu Natal midlands.
Once he had overcome the emotional aspects of Sunday’s game Tau was determined to tear the field apart with a performance that would have the capacity crowd off their feet in applause, for the most part on Sunday The Amakhosi had the fans on their feet applauding their every move.
Talking to kaizerchiefs.com after the game Tau said; “I felt that the guys played extremely well, everything worked for us and we were able to create and score goals at just the right time. We were good for the win and we have completed half the job by defeating Maritzburg and we will need to play just as well on Sunday in our final game against Silver Stars, if we do hopefully it will land us three more points which could see us qualify for the SAA Supa8 competition.”
With regards to his input during Sunday’s win against United Tau added, “like I mentioned for old times sake I was determined to do well, I just feel that I happened to be in the right places at the correct moments during the game”.
Tau took a humble approach towards his contributions towards laying on two of Chiefs goals on Sunday, when pressed further he said, “When it came to our second goal I really did not have much time to think when David Obua played the ball to me I saw that David Radebe was unmarked at the far post, I had the feeling that if I got the ball in the right spot in front of him he would be able to stick the ball home and that is what happened. With regards to our third goal I think a lot of credit must go to David Mathebula who thought very quickly and once I had sent the ball goal wards he timed his run beautifully and got to the ball first and the rest we know as they say is history”.
As Chiefs enter the final week of the 2006-2007 season Tau is optimistic that The Amakhosi can count on their fans turning up in large numbers for Sunday’s final game of the season, to be played at the Vodacom Loftus Stadium in Tshwane. The support of their fans on Sunday could well boost the Amakhosi according to Tau, which could see Chiefs play Silver Stars off the park in the same manner in which they did away with Maritzburg United. Another three points on Sunday should be able to help Chiefs sneak into a top eight finish in the league standings, thus allowing them to qualify for and try to launch a successful defence of their SAA Supa8 title.
