Posted in News on Oct 25, 2006.
The Amakhosi will have put behind them the celebrations from last weekends SAA Supa8 triumph, as they turn their attention to the PSL's latest addition to the domestic Cup calendar, the much incentive-laden Telkom Cup. As much as possible Chiefs will be out to avoid letting the triumph of the past weekend be the proverbial Banana peel on which they slip, as well as trying to avoid having a hangover after reaching dizzy heights in SAA Supa8.
Chiefs completed another training session in the blazing afternoon sun in Johannesburg on Wednesday; coach Ernst Middendorp believes it was necessary for the team to get used to the heat as Saturday’s game will be played in similar conditions.
“The players were put through their paces on Tuesday and Wednesday, every one is confident that we can take the positive result from the SAA Supa8 Final forward with us into Saturday’s game” added the Chiefs coach.
Middendorp was further confident of the fact that his team would be able to cope with the current heat wave Johannesburg is experiencing, “getting through Wednesday and Tuesday’s afternoon’s sessions without any difficulty which is a good sign for us, it shows that we will be able to manage playing a game in the heat on Saturday afternoon”.
While Chiefs attention for the past couple of weeks has been on matters concerning the SAA Supa8, Wits have had a decent run of results in recent times, although their most recent game against Bloemfontein Celtic had to be abandoned at half time. They were leading 2-1 at the time, but the game was called off due to excessive lightening.
Chiefs are aware of the fact that they cannot take the students lightly, as Wits inflicted The Amakhosi with the first defeat of the season in September. As goalkeeper Rowen Fernandez explains, Chiefs will be looking for a better performance than in that September defeat.
The Amakhosi goalkeeper is confident that Chiefs can achieve victory against his former team “we learned a couple of valuable lessons when we played them earlier in the season and I feel that since that game, as a team, we have grown from strength to strength. If you analyze our performances in the four games that we have played since we lost to Wits on the 20th September, we have won three. We are on a roll and for us all we have to do is translate everything we achieved against SuperSport into Saturday’s game and we should advance to the next round which is our objective at this time” said the Chiefs net minder.
Another former Wits player, Amakhosi midfielder Gert Schalkwyk, also believes that Chiefs do have the beating of his former team, “we have set ourselves a number of objectives one of them is. That we want to keep playing at a certain high standard and in recent games we have done that, I don’t see any change in that pattern this coming weekend. Obviously Wits being my old team and them having already won a game against us once, will give me personally added incentive to go all out for victory” added Gert.
There is one more aspect of Saturday’s encounter for Gert to be optimistic about as he explains “the game will be played at the Johannesburg Stadium. It was at the same stadium last season that I made my first start for Chiefs in a game against Moroka Swallows. Apart from just starting I also got my first goal for Chiefs at that Stadium, so I will be looking to continue my love affair on Saturday with the Johannesburg Stadium”.
The Amakhosi will make a short distance call to Wits University on Saturday as they kick off the Telkom Cup, while one eye will be on getting to the next round, there is the huge cash purse on offer for the team that wins the Telkom Cup.
The R 4.25 million cash prize for the Cup will ensure that both teams put up a fight to prolong their stay in the Telkom Cup, kick off for the game is a 15h15 and tickets are currently on sale at Computicket as well as Shoprite Checkers outlets around the country.
