This is a must win game for third-placed Chiefs who started the year with a loss to SuperSport United last Saturday, while Stars opened up a four-point gap between themselves and Chiefs with a 3-1 win over Golden Arrows in their first game of 2007.

Wednesday evening’s encounter provides Chiefs with the perfect opportunity to get their title ambitions back on track, as a win over Stars will see them cut the gap between themselves and Stars down to a solitary point.

Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp was not particularly pleased with his team’s performance on Saturday and has said that they have taken steps to rectify their failings against United, which saw Chiefs succumb to just their third defeat of the season.

Even though The Amakhosi are beset with a number of injuries and suspensions, the Chiefs coach has confidence in his back-up players and believes that they can return from Rustenburg with the right kind of result.

It will go a long way towards helping a number of the fringe players make a good case towards keeping their places in the starting eleven. With everything to play for Chiefs will be out to get their first win of 2007 in the bag.

Overview

The first official game between Chiefs and Stars came during the 2003-2004 Coca-Cola Cup final, when Stars - in their rookie year in the PSL - shocked all the pundits by making it all the way to the final.

Although Chiefs won the game, Stars did send out a clear message that they were not going to give up their place in the PSL easily, as most commentators had predicted.

When the teams met in the league on the first two occasions the matches ended all square during the 2003-2004 season. Chiefs emerged victors for the first time over Silver Stars in a league game during the 2004-2005 campaign.

Thanks to goals from Shoes Moshoeu and a Collins Mbesuma thunderbolt, The Amakhosi ran home 2-1 winners, the second game in the league between the teams in 2004-2005 finished goalless.

Last season for the first time in their history in all competition Chiefs lost a game to Silver Stars, despite taking the leader twice in the game. Stars ran out 4-2 winners. In the return game Chiefs extracted some sort of revenge when, despite going down early on in the game, The Amakhosi - under the leadership of stand in captain Fabian McCarthy - fought back to win the game 2-1.

The most recent game between the teams was a Telkom Knockout quartertfinal match played in November last year, in pouring rain in Rustenburg. Chiefs were knocked out of the competition by Stars who were eventually crowned Knockout champions for 2006.

Current Form

Despite their recent loss to SuperSport United, Chiefs have fared better than Stars in their last five PSL game, and have a far superior scoring rate to the PSL log leaders, who have in five games scored four goals.

Whereas Chiefs have scored three times as many goals as Stars in their last five outings in the PSL, Ernst Middendorp and his team will do themselves a big favour by closing the file on this past Saturday’s game and instead revert back to playing the way they did prior to the festive break.

The Amakhosi have been in a rich vein of form and even the loss against SuperSport can not take away the fact that Chiefs have in the past few weeks, made great strides in catching up with Stars.

At the beginning of November Chiefs were some eight points off the pace and have cut that down to four, should Chiefs find their rhythm again on Wednesday they could cut that deficit down once more.

Although Stars are presently on top of their table, their Telkom Knockout run has somewhat distracted them from being able to have put daylight between themselves and the chasing pack.

Instead they have dropped valuable points in the title race with draws against Ajax Cape Town, Bloemfontein Celtic and Mamelodi Sundowns; although they did get 2007 off to a winning start with a victory away from home over Golden Arrows on Saturday.

In the past Stars have always demonstrated their love for playing against Chiefs, and coach Owen da Gama no matter what position his team occupies in the league seems to get the best out of his whenever they play against Chiefs.

Key players

Against Chiefs Stars will rely heavily on the front pairing of Hareaipha Marumo, who has already scored five goals for his team in the league this season, as he demonstrated in the Telkom Knockout against The Amakhosi that he could be a real handful for defenders. Along with Marumo is Edward Williams who used the January transfer window to leave SuperSport United and rejoin his former team, Williams marked his return to Stars by bagging a brace against Golden Arrows at the weekend.

Chiefs enter the game against Stars minus a number of players who have shone for them in recent games, with the likes of Siyabonga Nkosi and Shaun Bartlett missing through injury and suspension.

A lot will now rest on Kaizer Motaung Junior finding his goal scoring touch up front; Motaung has scored six goals this season and will be looked upon by his coach to add to those goals.

Rowen Fernandez remains key to Chiefs’ continued success this season. The Bafana Bafana goalkeeper made a number of telling saves against SuperSport. Fernandez who has been linked with a move to Europe will be looking once again to impress the national team coach, and a clean sheet against Stars will go along way towards convincing Carlos Alberto Pareirra that he is the best goalkeeper in the country.

Kaizer Chiefs vs Silver Stars in league matches since 2003-2004

2003-2004


Silver Stars 0 Kaizer Chiefs 0


Kaizer Chiefs 0 Silver Stars 0

2004-2005


Kaizer Chiefs 2 (Moshoeu, Mbesuma) Silver Stars 1


Silver Stars 0 Kaizer Chiefs 0

2005-2006


Kaizer Chiefs 2 (Agyemang, Chalwe) Silver Stars 4


Silver Stars 1 Kaizer Chiefs 2 (Mayo, Tau)

Kaizer Chiefs Vs Silver Stars head to head in the league since 2003 – 2004

Kaizer Chiefs Vs Silver Stars head to head in the league since 2003 – 2004 



P	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD



Chiefs		6	2	1	3	6	6	0	



Stars		6	1	2	3	6	6	0



Kaizer Chiefs last five league results



6th December 2006 - Amazulu 0 Kaizer Chiefs 2 



9th December 2006 - Kaizer Chiefs 1 Orlando Pirates 1 



17th December 2006 - Kaizer Chiefs 6 Maritzburg United 1 



20th December 2006 - Kaizer Chiefs 3 Santos 2



6th January 2007 - Kaizer Chiefs 0 SuperSport United 2 



Silver Stars last five league results 



12th November 2006 - Jomo Cosmos 0 Kaizer Chiefs 1 



26th November 2006 - Silver Stars 0 Ajax Cape Town 0 



10th December 2006 - Silver Stars 0 Bloemfontein Celtic 0



20th December 2006 - Mamelodi Sundowns 0 Silver Stars 0 



6th January 2007 - Lamontville Golden Arrows 1 Silver Stars 3 



Head to head Kaizer Chiefs Vs Silver Stars last five league games



P	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD	PTS



Chiefs		5	3	1	1	12	6	6	10



Stars		5	2	0	3	4	1	3	9