kaizer chiefs.com goes back seven years and takes a look at the sub plot behind the Amakhosi’s last trip to Nedbank Cup Final or the Absa Cup as it was known back then in 2006.

When Chiefs reached the final of the 2005-06 Nedbank Cup Final there was a great sense of anticipation amongst the Amakhosi ranks, in the two previous campaigns Chiefs had done the double winning in 03-04 and 04-05 the league title and Coca Cola Cup.

At the end of the 2005-06 season having seen the league title move on and early exits in the SAA Supa8 and Coca Cola Cup, Chiefs had one last chance for silverware in that campaign – Nedbank Cup.

It was their arch rivals Orlando Pirates who would stand in their way as the Amakhosi set their sights on their first Nedbank Cup title since 2000, for two players in particular both of whom are the only members of the current Chiefs team to have been part of the match day set up back in 2006 there was a background story to their journey to the final.

Jimmy Tau had joined Chiefs in the off season amid much fan- fare from Orlando Pirates and having already done a sterling job in helping the Amakhosi defeat his former teammates in the side’s two league meetings that season.

Tau was aiming for a third triumph over Pirates and one that would land him his first silverware as a Chiefs player, a 17 year old third choice Chiefs goalkeeper with ambitions of one day leading the line for the club, Itumeleng Khune was called up to the bench on May 25 by Ernst Middendorp as the back-up goalkeeper after Emile Baron who had largely shared goalkeeping duties with Rowen Fernandez was out injured.

In the opening 20 minutes Pirates could have been a handful of goals up had it not been for the woodwork and some heroic goalkeeping from Fernandez, Chiefs with Tau leading from the back took control of the game midway through the first half and managed to take the game to a shoot-out.

In the run up to the shoot-out Khune would pass on advice to Fernandez as the teams prepared for penalties, whatever the contents of that message was it seemed to have helped as Fernandez saved Isaac Chansa’s spot kick and scored his kick which was Chiefs’ fifth to help the Amakhosi end a six year drought in the Nedbank Cup, as they won 5-3 on penalties.

Jimmy Tau on that rainy Saturday in Durban got to get his hands on his first winners medal, while a young Itumeleng Khune got a taste of the drama of a Cup Final for the first time.

Experience which would prove invaluable for the young keeper who eighteen months later would be the penalty shoot-out hero when Chiefs defeated Mamelodi Sundowns to lift the 2007-08 Telkom Knockout Cup Final.