The long wait is almost over as The Amakhosi prepare to play their first competitive match in almost two months this Wednesday evening against Thanda Royal Zulu in Rustenburg, with Chiefs coach Muhsin Ertugral’s mind focused on his team starting off with a win against the Durban team when they resume their league programme. Ertugral is aware that although his team will be up against one of the teams at the foot of the table, he is not willing to be complacent and let Thanda’s current standings play any part in his team's thinking ahead of the match as he believes that they will be a whole different team in the second half of the season. As Chiefs enter this game a lot of the pre match talk surrounds former Amakhosi midfielder Emanuel ‘Scara’ Ngobese who transferred to Thanda during the January transfer window and his up coming bout against Chiefs. Scara apart Thanda have three other former Chiefs players on their books plus striker Serge Djiehoua who is currently playing at Thanda on loan from The Amakhosi, and all will be looking to impress on Wednesday.

The History

Over the past season and a half Chiefs and Thanda have met on three occasions with The Amakhosi having won two of those encounters, the first meeting between the teams in a competitive fixture in September 2006 ended in a stale mate. A few months later and goals from Emmanuel Ngobese and Kaizer Motaung Junior secured Chiefs first win over Thanda when they were still known as Benoni Premier United, that game took place on the 14th January 2007. Chiefs duplicated that victory with another 2-0 win over them on the opening day of the current season in August last year; there were debut goals for Mandla Masango and Mabhudi Khenyeza. That win over Thanda on the 15th August 2007 remains Chiefs only away win of the 2007 – 2008 season, Muhsin Ertugral will be hoping for a repeat result on Wednesday which could give Chiefs a boost for their Sunday encounter against Cosmos.

Coaches View

Ertugral is taking a cautious approach to Wednesday’s proceedings and firmly believes that given their mid season transfer activity, Thanda could well be on course to turning their fortunes around. The Chiefs coach said “we saw during this break period that they bolstered their team by buying a whole number of players and this will probably be a turning point for them”. Thanda’s mid season buying spree has given Ertugral some course for concern as he further added, “when ever a team is quiet and they go about acquiring new players and you do not much about their activities it is something to worry about. With us entering this round of matches with renewed enthusiasm I do believe that we will be able to counter this and will give them a tough go of it, we have set our selves a target in this round of matches and we want to drop as few points as possible”.

Djiehoua Clash

Chiefs on loan striker at Thanda Royal the Ivorian Serge Djiehoua believes that the game will be a tight affair, as he explains there is both added pressure and incentive on him put up a match winning performance on Wednesday. Speaking to kaizerchiefs.com Djiehoua explained “I believe that more than any of the other players on the field I have the most to lose, there is a lot of pressure on us as a tem going into this match and on me as an individual because my coach is expecting me to put in a big performance”. The Ivorian does believe that he is on the right track to doing just that as he further added, “I my self am highly charged for this game and am fully concentrated on making the Chiefs defense work hard and I would very much love to score a goal or two”.

Results Chiefs Vs Thanda Royal since 2006 – 2007 PSL only

2006 - 2007

10th September 2006

PSL

*Benoni Premier United 0 Kaizer Chiefs 0

14th January 2007

Kaizer Chiefs 2 (Ngobese 62’, Motaung 66’) *Benoni Premier United 0

2007 – 2008

PSL

15th August 2007

Thanda Royal Zulu 0 Kaizer Chiefs 2 (Masango 10’, Khenyeza 90’pen)

*Benoni Premier United changed their team during the 2007 – 2008 season to Thanda Royal Zulu

Head to head Chiefs Vs Thanda Royal since 2006 – 2007

	P	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD
Kaizer Chiefs	3	2	0	1	4	0	4
Thanda Royal Zulu	3	0	2	1	0	4	- 4