Posted in News on Oct 17, 2006.
The Chiefs and SuperSport Coaches were together at a press conference held in Sandton in Johannesburg on Tuesday afternoon. Ernst Middendorp has, for the most part, laughed off comments made by Pitso Mosimane, and has attributed them to the fact that the SuperSport coach is waging Psychological warfare against The Amakhosi.
When asked at the news conference as to how he saw the game going on Saturday, and also the fact that Chiefs will have a major share of the support in the stadium, the Bafana Bafana caretaker coach answered: “We get very worried when we play against Chiefs, Pirates and Sundowns. I know the stadium will be painted yellow on Saturday which worries me”.
Loaded answers indeed coming from a coach whose team has disposed of the latter two South African soccer giants on their way to the final.
The usually brash Mosimane, when asked by a journalist as to why he is playing down his teams chances ahead of the game where as he is usually more vociferous regarding his team's chances in a game, Mosimane replied, “lets be frank, as we all know that Chiefs are the favourites for the game and we stand no chance as we have a young team and they have all the experience”.
In reply to Mosimane’s comments Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp said “he has said that he has made no changes to starting eleven since the league began, and that because we have changed our personal around so often that we are difficult to predict. I would make nothing out of that statement because if you look at his starting line-ups, he has also made changes game by game or every alternate game. The most glaring of which is the way he has alternated his goalkeepers”.
The Chiefs coach was further perplexed by Mosimane’s utterances when the SuperSport coach said “to me, playing in this final is not as important as winning the league. Reaching my sixth Cup final in three seasons does not excite me and lifting the Cup on Saturday will mean nothing to me”.
Ernst Middendorp’s reply to Mosimane’s comments were “if I have to play a cup final every weekend, I will be a happy man and will savour every cup final appearance. This is our second major Cup Final already this year, and just as we were happy to make it to the ABSA Cup final, we are happy to be going back to Durban for the opportunity to bring home more silverware. I think that Pitso is trying to lure us in a trap but we will not charge for his bait. Saturday is an important Cup Final date for us and I know that SuperSport will come out fighting. If winning the game was not important to them, they would not have been in the final. Obviously he has a hidden plan and we will not fall for his tricks”.
The SuperSport coach echoed similar sentiments prior to the two teams last Cup clash in March this year when Chiefs defeated SuperSport 3-1 in an ABSA Cup round of 32 game. Ernst Middendorp is aware that nothing can be made out of Mosimane’s talks in the media, whereby he is billing Chiefs as the favourites, as SuperSport and in particular their coach enjoy playing against and defeating the bigger teams, especially in Cup Finals.