Posted in News on Jan 02, 2007.
Chiefs remained active throughout the final weekend of 2006 as they followed up their Friday training session, with a few more sessions on Saturday and Sunday as they closed of 2006 with a strenuous work out on midday Sunday.
With most teams in the PSL back at training all the coaches have begun to get their teams ready for the remaining league fixtures of the new year, as PSL matches kick off this weekend with the shortest mid season break in the eleven season history of the PSL coming to an end. As this was the shortest midseason break since the inception of the PSL in 1996 – 1997, it meant that a number of players had to alter their holiday plans.
This included Chiefs midfielder David Obua who had to postpone a planned trip to the idyllic Indian Ocean Island of Mauritius, although the thought of sitting under palm tress with clear blue waters ahead of him. Was a prospect the highly talented midfielder was looking forward to, he had no problem with having to put his holiday on ice in order to be back at training on the 29th December.
As he sets out to put in place his plan for a New Years revolution, as he explained “I do not have a problem with having to postpone my holiday, I will go on holiday in May and hopefully take along my league championship medal with me”.
Obua who lit up the scene last season in his first full season with Chiefs is looking to continue, his personal and the teams revival which saw Chiefs go unbeaten in the last month of 2006. Obua talked us through his plans for 2007 saying, “if a team is happier to be at training instead of on the beach it shows that the guys are determined to win the league, personally I want be part of a Chiefs revolution in 2007 when we over throw the reigning powers and take control of the league”.
Amakhosi’s player of the year last season, Obua is well aware that if Chiefs are to challenge for honours it will not be an easy ride, “how well we do in January will decide our fate for the rest of the season that is my personal feeling. We have five games this month and should we win all of these games, it will take us along way towards getting ahead in the race for league honours” said Obua.
He further believes that victory for Chiefs in their first two games of 2007, will go along way towards laying the foundations for Chiefs to be successful over the remaining five months of the season. With regards to this Obua said “a win against SuperSport followed up by one against Silver Stars will have a ripple effect, starting with the SuperSport game.
Firstly a win against them will give us a morale boost it as we are aiming for a winning start to the new year, victory over Silver Stars is necessary because they are number one at the moment and we want to make the top spot ours. Success in these games will help us send out a message to all the other teams, that we are serious about challenging for honours and will be the team to stop”.
Having already gone through a handful of training sessions in the past couple of day, Obua’s confidence is further heightened by the performances of his teammates at training since last Friday. “Every one returned from their holidays more determined and wanting to do better than we did last year, the guys are putting more into training and are working harder that I have ever seen them train before”. David believes that the team will reap the rewards of all the hard work, they have recently put in as he said “last season we won one trophy, this season we have already won the SAA Supa8 title.
We want to improve on last year so we are determined to hold onto our ABSA Cup title as well as add the league championship to that, 2007 is going to be a long year. There sixteen league games ahead of us we need to work on them game by game, treat every game as though our lived depended on it and if we do that and continue to give everything we have we will come out on top”.
A date this Saturday evening at Vodacom Loftus a ground which has so far given Chiefs a victorious welcome to their new temporary surroundings, Obua who has found his feet once again in recent times. Will be looking to continue from where he left off at the end of 2006, and get Chiefs title ambitions moving in the right direction against SuperSport on Saturday.