Gerald Sibeko completed a hat trick of man of the match award recipients in the 2007 Telkom Cup, when he followed in the footsteps of team mates Itumeleng Khune and Siphiwe Tshabalala as he became the third Chiefs player in this years Telkom Knock Out Cup who to be nominated as the pick of the bunch.

In the last sixteen it was Itumeleng Khune whose shoot out heroics helped him get the nod as the man of the match during the shoot out win over Moroka Swallows, in the ¼ Finals Siphiwe Tshabalala was in sizzling form collecting the accolade against SuperSport United.

During Saturday’s semifinal Gerald Sibeko and team mate Fabian McCarthy were neck and neck in the man of the match votes with Sibeko just pipping him to the finish line, the diminutive midfielder who won R5000 worth of equipment to be donated to a school of his choice has complimented his team mates for the way they stuck together and made their way into the Telkom Knock Out Cup Final.

Two years and counting

Gerald literally and figuratively bore the scars of battle at the end of Saturday’s game and limped to the post match television interview and back to the dressing room, with a deep gash in his right leg. Sibeko savoured the moment and the congratulations of his team mates when he eventually got back to the change room, when asked about how it felt scoring for his first goal for Chiefs in more than two years Gerald added.

“When I came to the ground on Saturday I knew that things were going to go well for us, in particular I some how had this gut feeling that I was going to have one of my best games.

The funny thing is that just before kick off I told a few of the guys that today was the day I would find the back of the net, as fate would have it so it turned out to be a definite match to remember for me”.

Gather round

The race for who should be named the man of the match was a close one and Sibeko believes that it is an indication as to just what a great team effort it was by The Amakhosi in over coming Celtic in Mmabatho, he adds on by saying.

“I heard that the race for man of the match came down to the wire all it means is that we put in a great team performance, and basically every guy played his part in getting us to the final. It is really good news for me to know that we can count on each other during a game, we expect the next few games to be just as tough and if we back each other up in the way that we did on Saturday we will excel in those games”.

For the final

While Gerald and his team mates had Sunday off they it meant they had the luxury of being arm chair spectators for the other Telkom Cup Semifinal played in Kimberley between Free State Stars and Mamelodi Sundowns , from the outset Sibeko has gone on record saying that who The Amakhosi meet in the final was not important. With the news that it would be Mamelodi Sundowns he said of the December 1 showdown, “so far in the competition we have come through probably the toughest draw so playing another of the big teams was not going to be any different.

Whether Stars made it through or Sundowns we knew once we had reached the final that who ever we would face, would make a game out of it, we now know that we have Sundowns in the final and will be ready for them”.

Cosmos, Stars, SuperSport and ‘Sundowns’?

Can he make it number four and add to the two previous winner’s medals he has collected in this competition under its previous guises as the Coca Cola Cup previously with the Amakhosi Sibeko answered, “do we feel that we can win the tournament? My answer would be yes the team as a collective feels that we have what it takes, in terms of the will to win as well as the cup final experience to walk with the trophy and that large bonus cheque”.

With a 2001, 2003 and 2004 winners medal from the old Coca Cola Cup Gerald will be confident of number four, and if he is able to repeat his performance from the semi final game few would bet against him adding the 2007 Telkom Cup to his vast collection of silver ware on display at his home.