A season of numbers
A season of numbers

Posted in News on Aug 30, 2006.

While Chiefs began their 2006-07 season with a draw it was not the kind of result The Amakhosi would have been looking for but one they will be satisfied with, should one look at the result in a historical context.

As the season gets into full swing there will be plenty of time for smiles during the season as the eleventh season of the PSL since its inception in 1996/ 1997 looks to be an intriguing one for Chiefs. Intriguing in many ways as the season, which kicked for Chiefs this past Sunday looks likely to ring in a number of new milestones for The Amakhosi, a number of which will keep those with statistics on their minds very busy.

For starters Chiefs 2-2 all draw against Supersport United on Sunday earned them a point for their hard days work it also meant that Chiefs in the eleven seasons of the PSL had notched up their 605th points, in 325 games played since the 1996 – 1997 season.

Chiefs earned their six hundredth point earlier this year, to be precise on Saturday 18th March 2005 when they drew 1-1 with Moroka Swallows at the FNB Stadium, that result had another twist in it as Chiefs goal scorer that evening Gert Schalkwyk found himself on the score sheet earlier in the season when the two teams played out a 1-1 draw at the Johannesburg Stadium.

2006-07 Should see Chiefs bag a whole a lot of new historical marks, with two goals to their name already The Amakhosi need seventeen more goals to reach the magical 500 goal mark as they currently stand on 483 all time PSL goals. 500 will also be a number on Thabo Mooki’s mind as he enters his 14th season with Chiefs, since making his debut back in 1994 the midfield maestro has played a total of 354 games for in Gold and Black, this figure includes league and official cup games as well as substitute appearances.

Currently the record held for the most Chiefs appearances stands under the name of one Doctor Khumalo, the former Amakhosi legend was a teammate of Mooki’s in various spells from 1994 up until his retirement in 2003.

If all that is too much there will be a host of figures that Ernst Middendorp will be hoping to avoid this term one of them being the number 14, which was the total amount of games that Chiefs drew last season. Their previous record of draws was an unlucky thirteen obtained during the 2001-02 season, which was also the season when Chiefs ended ninth on the table to date has been their lowest finish in the PSL.

The all important number of Chiefs should be 24, if they were to achieve 24 victories in the coming season it would break their previous record of 23 victories obtained during the 1998-99 season. With all this numbering around perhaps the most important figure to remember is 60, since the league was reduced in 2002-03 to sixteen teams it seems as though that 60 points have been enough to see your team crowned as PSL Champions. It must be added though that Sundowns did win the league last season having gained a mere 57 points, which was the lowest points total achieved by the Champions since the inception of the PSL in 1996-97.

It must also be noted that the 63 and 62 points Chiefs collected in their back to back Championship winning seasons of 2003-04 and 2004-05 are also the highest points totals reached by the PSL Champions since the league was cut down from eighteen to sixteen teams at the start of the 2002-03 season.

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