It has been a hectic couple of weeks for the Kaizer Chiefs first team as they have been in and out of airport terminals, as well as tracking their luggage up and down the corridors of hotels and coupled with that the fact that they have spent and will spend something like twenty days in the month of November away from home. The up coming weekend designated by Fifa as an international weekend will afford Chiefs some reprieve from the rigors of their recent journey’s which has already taken them to Rustenburg, Mmabatho and twice to Durban with a further journey back to the coast next week to face Orlando Pirates.

While The Amakhosi all headed home to their families on Thursday afternoon after arriving back in Johannesburg from Durban for Siphiwe Tshabalala it was off to join Bafana Bafana as they prepare for the Nelson Mandela inauguration game against the United States of America. While there will be no rest for Tshabalala the likes of Zimbabwean international left back Onismor Bhasera will be able to spend most of the weekend with their feet up watching the international matches on the go from the comfort of his lounge.

Weekend relaxation

With a commercial activity on Friday morning and an afternoon training session the last working day of the week will see The Amakhosi working once more, but with not much activity planned for Saturday and Sunday Bhasera is looking forward to what could well be his only weekend off until the PSL closes late in December for the festive break. “There has been a lot of travelling for us over the past couple of weeks and one does need the chance to sit back and let the world go by for a while, that is exactly what I plan to do over the weekend” added Bhasera.

Pirates on the mind

Though he might be enjoying the beautiful summer weather over the weekend Bhasera’s thoughts will be on all things black and white, while he relaxes by lending his support as an arm chair fan to team mate Tshabalala who will be in action with Bafana Bafana on Saturday and next Tuesday. A lot of his time will be occupied by how he begins his preparations on Monday for Chiefs encounter with Orlando Pirates next weekend, which will once again see Bhasera and his team mates making a trip to Durban. “We will get down to the nitty gritty of things from Monday onwards, the coach has told us to use the weekend to regenerate and get our batteries recharged as he will be expecting us to be well rested as we start preparing for Pirates” added Onismor.

Ready to board ship

Having tasted the rivalry between Chiefs and Pirates during the Vodacom Challenge Play off match contested between the teams back in July in Port Elizabeth, which was a game that Pirates managed to win Bhasera, believes that experience has helped him fully understand the rivalry between the two teams. As he added “You can watch a Chiefs Pirates game on television but you can never fully understand what losing to Pirates means to Chiefs, as a player wearing gold and black losing is always hard but losing to Pirates I have learnt is unforgivable. We mean business next Saturday and will demonstrate that on the field of play, we cannot take anything for granted in our build up to this crucial game”.