Posted in News on Dec 31, 2007.
Between the start of 2008 and the resumption of Chiefs league programme The Amakhosi, like the rest of the teams in the Premier Soccer League, will have to wait until the middle of February, after the Africa Cup of Nations before the title race can begin in earnest.
Ertugral, who will be back in the country on Thursday morning will gather his team a mere 48 hours later on Saturday morning, for what will be Chiefs first training session of 2008 and the process of getting his team in shape will begin.
While away sitting on distant shores Ertugral has been mulling over what awaits his team from February to the end of May 2008, and has been drawing up his own New Years wish list and a major priority for the Chiefs coach in the 2008 is for his team to add another piece of silverware to the Telkom Knockout Cup.
With Chiefs possibly making just under half a dozen trips outside of Gauteng for their remaining fifteen ABSA Premiership fixtures, Ertugral is of the opinion that less time on the road could well work in Chiefs favour and help the team achieve another of his aims and that is qualification for the African Champions League.
2008 Wish List
Ertugral speaking to kaizerchiefs.com from the Thai capital Bangkok where he is spending the holidays, spoke of his aims for 2008 and will like for nothing more than for his team to finish the season with one more trophy as he said.
“Our immediate aim in the New Year is to continue working on our physical aspects of our game and we have a pre-season like period which will help us get our injured players back to full fitness, and by the time we start again on February 13th, my hope is that we have a rejuvenated and full strength squad to attack our remaining matches with”.
Further Cup Success
Going the distance in the Nedbank Cup; a tournament Chiefs last won at the end of the 2005 – 2006 season is also part of Ertugral’s plan for 2008, as he on a personal level has the Coach of the tournament award to defend, a prize he won while leading Ajax Cape Town to victory in the 2006 – 2007 tournament when it was still known as the ABSA Cup.
Ertugral said of this “last season I got to the Telkom Cup Final and this year went one better as we won it, from the way we performed through the Telkom Knockout tournament I feel we can repeat that success in the Nedbank Cup. By winning one trophy already this season we have set the tone and laid the ground work for what can definitely be a season which I feel we can win emerge with two cups”.
African Ambitions
Ertugral has given Chiefs fixture programme for the remainder of the season the thumbs up as The Amakhosi do not have much travelling to do, and has said that it is conducive for them to reach their target of qualifying for at least one African Cup Competition, the man who lead Chiefs to their first success on the continent in 2001.
When The Amakhosi lifted the old African Cup Winners Cup or Mandela Cup believes that qualifying for African Club Competition is a must for a team with Chiefs ambitions, as he explained by adding.
“It might not look like a big achievement to many but for me qualifying for the African Champions League or the African Confederations Cup is a must, more so the Champions League and we will fight to ensure that we qualify for that event.
We as a Club need to be taking on Al – Ahly and Etoile Sahel and the likes, to prove we are the best on the continent. We will begin to build towards that and hopefully over the next two years we can achieve success in the African Champions League and qualify for the FIFA Club World Championships”.
