Posted in News on Apr 11, 2006.
Indeed it is a question not many would like to answer in the negative as The Amakhosi are accustomed to success and failure is not something Chiefs would like to dwell upon given the club’s record in competitions in its 36 year existence. To find the last time Chiefs ended a season without any silverware one would have to journey back four seasons to the 2002-2003 campaign, prior to that and since then Chiefs have always been able to make space for a new trophy in the cabinet.
With the league title race on tenterhooks at the moment, Chiefs will be putting whatever remains of the league campaign on ice and are putting the ABSA Cup trophy in line. Since ABSA took over in 2003, Chiefs have not progressed beyond the round of 32. This year Chiefs have made it into the quarterfinals and the last time they made it to this stage of South Africa’s premier knock out competition was back in 2001,when it was known as the Bobsave, when they were defeated in the semi finals.
Chiefs legions of fans will take comfort in the fact that The Amakhosi are hungry for victory and apart from winning the R 2.5 Million winners purse which goes with the ABSA Cup, Chiefs also have a number of players who could win some of the individual awards up for grabs, none more so than Louis Agyemang who currently leads the goal scoring in the cup.
This year the sponsors are offering a whopping R40 000 prize for the top goal scorer in the competition and although he is the number one marksmen the Ghanaian international is not looking for personal glory. “Should I score more goals - that will be fine, if I am in a position to lay off a ball to someone else in a better scoring position, it will only be correct of me to put the teams interest first and lay off the ball to the other guy” said Agyemang. As lucrative as all the incentives being laid out by the sponsors may seem, Louis main focus is putting paid to Black Leopards and getting into the semi-finals. He adds “we learnt from our game against City Pillars that we need to be focused on whoever we come up against and cannot take anyone for our opponents for granted.”
As the hunt for a place in the ABSA Cup semi final gets closer, Chiefs preparations have begun in earnest as they go in search of their first South African Cup triumph since 2000. The Amakhosi will meet Black Leopards on Saturday evening to see who will progress on into the semi finals of the ABSA Cup; the match will kick off at 20h00.
ABSA CUP Incentives
ABSA Cup Winners will receive R 2, 500, 000.00
ABSA Cup Runners Up will receive R 1, 00, 000.00
Losing Semi Finalists will each receive R 300 000
Losing Quarterfinalist will each receive R 100 000
Platinum Hat trick Awards R 33 333. 33 Any player who scores a hat trick from the ¼ Finals onwards
Coach of the tournament will receive R 30 000
Player of the tournament will receive R 40 000
Top Goal scorer will be awarded with the Nathi Majozi Award plus R 40 000
Silver moment of Brilliance R 20 000
