We get ready for Leopards after coming off a very tough game Against Golden Arrows this past Saturday at the FNB Stadium; although we won one must say there was a strong element of luck on our side. While lady luck has been elusive in many of our previous league games she shone with all her resilience and beauty when we played Arrows.

I did say before the game that it was going to be a tough game and Arrows certainly demonstrated their abilities and prowess, they have shown that they should not be taken lightly. The important thing for us was to take our chances effectively and we did that with great efficiency, firstly Songwe took the half chance he had and gave us the lead. Kaizer Junior who is improving with every game finished well and he basically put us in a comfort zone, and with the way Arrows were attacking it was important for us to get a second goal to make sure of the three points.

At the back I thought we gave them too much space especially when they attacked us through the middle, Alton Meiring had a few chances created from central positions, Papi Zothwane took a shot from way out which hit the cross bar after he found himself in acres of space. Emile Baron was again in inspired form as he made countless saves from dangerous positions and what I thought would certainly be balls in the back of the net. He must get particular commendation for the save he made at the feet of the Arrows captain Mlungisi Gumbi in the dying minutes of the game.

Mabuthi Khanyeza scored a fantastic goal in the 80th minute, which made our hearts beat a bit faster for the last ten minutes. He had another at attempt goal late on but Cyril was par for the course and thwarted him, he is a fantastic player and along with Meiring made our lives very difficult.

Last week was a very busy week for the team and for myself too as we par took in a number of social and team engagements, which kept us quiet, busy over the week. We had a successful team building exercise on Monday and the clubs end of the year function on Tuesday, which I have previously elaborated on. Also I went for my first live studio interview since I have been in South Africa, as I appeared on the Engen Premier Soccer Show on DSTV Channel 23 on Thursday last week.

I am always one who is open to conduct interviews at any time and I enjoyed the questions from the panel made up of Neil Tovey, Thomas Mlambo, Thomas Kwenaitie and well renowned pundit Mark Gleeson who joined us via a satellite link from Cape Town. The format of the discussion and the issues we spoke about were of an intelligent nature and I found this panel to be one of high expertise and well read on various issues particularly Mark Gleeson.

We have two more training days left for 2005, which will be on Tuesday and Wednesday before we leave late on Wednesday for Polokwane where we will spend Wednesday evening. Than we will make our way to Thoyandou for our final league game of the season on Thursday with a 16h00 kick off, we will return immediately after the game and the players will than be on official leave until we resume training some time in January.

It was a welcome relief to see the PSL bring forward the date of the game to the 22nd it now means that Frank Eullberg will still be assisting me and we will leave South Africa to go back to Germany on the 23rd. The good thing is I was originally resigned to missing Christmas with my family as Chiefs has to come first but now I will be home on the morning of the 24th with enough time to still do some last minute shopping.

I will speak to you all again on Wednesday when we will talk about Black Leopards and on Friday I will address the supporters for the final time this year and do a summary of our high and low points of since I have been at Chiefs.

Love and Peace!

Ernst Middendorp


Kaizer Chiefs Head Coach