The past week has given me the opportunity to run the players through a number of training drills that I was unable to do during my first week at the job, due to the fact that we had a game at the end of the week and time really was not on our side.

I was unable to really get the guys to do things completely as I would have liked, as we had the Bloemfontein Celtic game at the end of last week we also had to focus on preparing for that match. Thankfully though this week things have been rather more laid back as the schedule has us not playing any matches, which in some way has been good and in another way it is not ideal to have such a long time off at this stage of the season.

Anyhow there really is not anything I can do about that and we have to work around not having any league games for the weekend, though we do have two reserve team games coming up shortly as well as a trip to Port Elizabeth to face Bloemfontein Celtic in a friendly game next Sunday.

It has however pleased me to see the way things have progressed over the week as we have done work on the training ground and in the gym. The technical team did not hold back and because of the fact that there were no matches coming up this week, we were able to really take our physical training to the maximum.

Other issues relating to the team focus mainly on national team activities, before that I must also welcome Thuso Phala to the Chiefs fold. He has worked really hard in his first week with the team - a new player will always take time to get to grips with his new surroundings and team mates and Phala has ample time to prepare himself thoroughly for next season as he is unable to play for us this term.

Onto matters of the national team: I was initially surprised to learn that Jimmy Tau was left out of the team to face Chad next week, but I later learned that he had been a late inclusion in the team. It was strange that he had been omitted looking at the way he played against Swaziland in the mid week training game. Thankfully he has been put back in the team which is good for him as he deserves to be in the Bafana Bafana setup.

My personal opinion is that along with Cyril Nzama, Siyabonga, Rowen and Jimmy, Scara too should have been on the way to N’djamena for next weeks Africa Nations Cup Qualifier. There has been a debate raging all week about whether or not Kaizer Motaung Junior, should be called up to the national team, and to tell you the truth I do feel that based on his current form he needs to be given a chance.

The thing is that the argument against him has always centred around his lack of experience at club level and his age. His performances over the season have been consistent enough to demonstrate that he could deliver the goods for the national team. After all he is the joint second best scorer this season and is the joint top South African goal scorer in the PSL goal scoring rankings.

The top scorer in the league is from outside the country and has left the PSL; perhaps the game against Swaziland could have been the perfect opportunity for them to have given him a run out with the national team.

That concludes our communication for the week, I will be back at my desk on Monday and with us not playing any matches this coming weekend I could delay my Monday column and put it out on Tuesday instead.

Kosta Papic


Kaizer Chiefs Head Coach