Posted in News on Jul 23, 2008.
Kaizer Chiefs Head coach, Muhsin Ertugral together with Club captain, Jimmy Tau represented the Glamour Boys in what was a well attended press conference. In the attendance list were the Deputy Executive Mayor, Councilor Bicks Ndoni and MEC for Sports, Arts and Recreation, Ms Noxolo Abraham-Ntantiso. Orlando Pirates were represented by goalkeeper coach, William Okpara and Club captain, Lehlohonolo Seema.
“We welcome both Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates in the Eastern Cape Province. These are two giants of South African football and we honoured to host them in our province. The relationship between us (Provincial Government) and the two clubs started last year and is due to expire by 2010. We are however hoping to continue this relationship even beyond that...the two teams enjoy big following all over the country including here (Nelson Mandela Metropole). We are hoping that they will share their fans with our own Bay United who have just been promoted to the Premiership” said MEC as she welcomes the two football giants to the friendly City of Port Elizabeth.
Kaizer Chiefs Head coach, Muhsin Ertugral told the attendants on how important the tournament is and that it is part of team’s preparation for the upcoming season, “This tournament is very important for us. We have recycled about 23 players in a space of a year and it has not been an easy process so the tournaments of this nature help a lot. We learnt lot of lessons from the game against Manchester United” he said.
“Together with the team we watched the game earlier and analyzed everything. Generally the team did well against Man U. who fielded a very strong team. Their line up was tremendous with some of the best strikers (Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez) but our defence organisation was fabulous on the day. The ‘cloud-nine’ is over now and we all focused to the game against Orlando Pirates” he concluded.
“Willy” said they are also taking the game seriously following a loss against Manchester United in Durban.
“This is a big test for the players. I know that our supporters and everyone is going on about derby, derby, and derby but most importantly for us is to prepare a team for next season. Our supporters will be expecting a win but this is preseason. I am confident though that we will give our best tomorrow” said the former Orlando Pirates goal minder who kept the posts for the Bucs for almost ten seasons.
Bucs captain, Lehlohonolo concurred with the words of the assistant coach saying the match will be a huge test for them, “We are going to compete against Chiefs tomorrow” said the soft speaking captain.
Kaizer Chiefs captain, Jimmy Tau downplayed the comments about him captaining Kaizer Chiefs in the game tomorrow having last worn the armband for Orlando Pirates in 2005 when they beat Chiefs 2-1 in the final of the same competition in Durban.
“This is not about one individual but about all of us as a team. We are honoured as a team to be here in P.E. We have a big task at hand, we are focused. We have set certain objectives as a team this season and we are aware of the challenges we will have to go through in achieving our objectives starting with the game tomorrow” he said.
The organisers of the tournament have indicated that for every goal scored during the game R50 000 will be donated to Goals for Miracles, a Charity organisation that deals with needy who suffer from eyesight pandemic.
