Posted in News on Aug 21, 2007.
It won’t be just the mercury that will rise as things are usually quite heated when Chiefs and Cosmos meet, in recent times the intense rivalry of the two Gauteng clubs has produced a football spectacle to behold and a real feast for the fans.
When the teams met in the corresponding fixture a season ago it produced four goals, and it was a game of end to
end action from start to finish. As Chiefs clawed their way back into the game after trailing by two goals at one stage, The Amakhosi snatched a point when Kaizer Motaung Junior added to Shaun Bartlett’s earlier goal when he struck near the end of the game to level matters at 2-2.
One man who is well accustomed to the history and rivalry between Chiefs and Cosmos is Amakhosi coach Muhsin Ertugral, who in his previous stint as Chiefs coach, came face to face with Cosmos seven times in both league and cup competition.
Ertugral and Cosmos
In only his third game in charge during his first spell as Chiefs coach on the 26th September 1999, Muhsin Ertugral and Chiefs traveled to Vosloorus for a league game against Cosmos.
It was a real baptism of fire for Ertugral as he learned first hand about the fierce battle that is a meeting between Chiefs and Cosmos. A number of cards were dished out and The Amakhosi had team manager Bobby Motaung sent from the bench and a young Jabu Pule was given his marching orders for scuffling with Macbeth Sibaya.
During his second season when Chiefs traveled to Rustenburg to meet Cosmos, they were reduced to nine men as Robert Nauseb and once more Jabu Pule were unfairly red carded in two separate incidents in the first half. Chiefs played more than half the game with nine men and even took the lead through Jacob Tshisevhe in the 52nd minute. But could not hold out as Cosmos fought back to win the game 2-1.
Things did get sweeter for Ertugral against Cosmos when he guided Chiefs to a sizzling 5-0 win in the 2001 Coca Cola Cup Final over Ezenkosi.
Muhsin looks back
The Chiefs coach has fond memories of games against Cosmos during his previous tenure at the helm of The Amakhosi, Ertugral led Chiefs out in seven league and Cup matches against Cosmos in the past. As things stand he has won two, drawn three and lost two of those games, but does have a good, healthy, positive goal tally against them - having scored nine and conceded just four in all of those games.
“Every time we played against Cosmos in my previous time with Chiefs the games were full of incident, there is never a dull moment when Chiefs play them. The match is good entertainment value for both the fans and the players, personally my pick of the games against Cosmos must be the 2001 Coca Cola Cup Final. Not just because we won 5-0 but I feel that was one of the best Chiefs performances I had the good fortune of overseeing.”
Ertugral renewed hostilities with Cosmos last season when he returned to the PSL with Ajax Cape Town and defeated Cosmos 3-0. It came at a time when Cosmos had kicked started the season with a bang and were close to the top of the table at the time. That will be the kind of result the Chiefs coach will be hoping for on Saturday and in addition he will want his team to get on with the business of bringing home three points.
Kaizer Chiefs Vs Cosmos with Ertugral as Chiefs coach
1999 – 2000
26th September 1999
Cosmos 0, Kaizer Chiefs 0
8th March 2000
Chiefs 1 (Nomvete pen), Cosmos 1 (Mwaruwari)
2000 – 2001
28th October 2000
Cosmos 2 (Tico-Tico, Mwaruwari), Kaizer Chiefs 1 (Tshisevhe)
7th April 2001
Kaizer Chiefs 2 (Nomvete, Illodigwe), Cosmos 0
2001 – 2002
12th February 2002
Cosmos 2 (Sibaya, Nhlekho), Kaizer Chiefs 0
21st April 2002
Kaizer Chiefs 0, Jomo Cosmos 0
2001 Coca Cola Cup Final
24th November 2001
Kaizer Chiefs 5 (Zwane, Niemach, Pulex2, Fredericks), Cosmos 0
