Tshabalala ready for Usuthu battle
Tshabalala ready for Usuthu battle

Posted in News on Dec 05, 2007.

Midfielder Siphiwe Tshabalala believes that the Amakhosi have put behind them their weekend's success over Mamelodi Sundowns in the Telkom Knockout, and have come back down to earth and are aiming to transfer their success in cup competition to the league.

Tshabalala who performed consistently well through Chiefs run in the Telkom Cup and scored his first goal for The Amakhosi and was named man of the match, during Chiefs ¼ Final win over SuperSport United in the Telkom Cup, has his attention firmly focused on Wednesday evening's league encounter with Amazulu in Durban.

The gifted left footed Tshabalala is not fazed by having to face a young and hard working Amazulu team, just a couple of days after winning the Telkom Cup and instead is confident of three points coming Chiefs way.



Like home



Wednesday's game will be The Amakhosi fourth consecutive league game at the ABSA Stadium in Durban for Tshabalala and his team mates. The Bafana Bafana midfielder believes that as Chiefs have played at the venue over the past couple of weeks they are used to the conditions and will be at home in the ABSA Stadium.

He said “I do believe that it will be quiet hot Wednesday evening in Durban, we are though used to playing in the heat and humidity of Durban as this is our fourth game there as we have drawn two and lost one of our previous three games there we will be looking to get our first three points at this stadium on Wednesday evening”.



Fighting Usuthu



Coming up against Clive Barker and his battle wary troops will make for a good contest on Wednesday and given his current form Siphiwe is ready to get into the heart of the battle at the ABSA Stadium, as he said. “I really admire what Clive Barker has done with them I think that over the past few weeks they have begun to play with a clear pattern, and they have a very attacking mindset. I felt that they should have made it at least to the last four of the Telkom Knockout Cup, you have to admire the way Belux Kasongo has been doing in defence also Dumisani Ngwenya has been giving them the edge in the final third. He has found goals and I see that he has now developed this ability of holding up the ball and feeding it off to the likes of Shoes Moshoeu or Dennis Lota”.



Three points on the mind



With Chiefs playing a total of five matches in the month of December, Tshabalala believes that it is important for them to start off with a win against Amazulu as it will help set the tone for the rest of the month.

He said of his intentions for Chiefs next five league games, “what we need is to put together a string of wins which will help take us up the standings, with no disrespect to any team we do have a couple of games now against mid table teams and we have the opportunity to accumulate some points.

If we are able to come out of December with the maximum number of points, it will put us in a more competitive position when the second round of fixtures resume after the Africa Cup of Nations in January”.

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