Kaizer Chiefs are still in with a shout of ending off the current season with two trophies and according to defender Fabian McCarthy, there is a strong chance they will do just that in the 2007 - 2008 PSL Nedbank Cup which begins in March.

Previously known as the ABSA Cup, the draw for South Africa’s premier knockout competition under its new guise, takes place on Monday evening in Sandton, Johannesburg and McCarthy holds the opinion that the competition is for Chiefs to lose.

The Amakhosi last won this particular trophy, which sees teams from the professional and amateur ranks coming face to face, in 2005 – 2006 when they defeated Orlando Pirates on penalties in the final. Last season as defending champions, they bowed out of the competition in the opening round to Golden Arrows. Although McCarthy would like to avoid PSL teams in the opening round, he does believe that there is no such thing as an easy game in the PSL Nedbank Cup.

Banana peel

Fabian has been quick to point out that when teams reach the last 32 stage one can no longer take any opponent for granted, and as a PSL team you need to be careful not to slip on the proverbial Banana peel that is a team from the lower divisions. As he said “the nature of cup football is such that you cannot really look down on your opponents no matter what their league form or the division that they play in, it is just one game and the smaller teams usually go all out to cause an upset. Two seasons ago a team from the 1st Division City Pillars stretched us all the way in an ABSA Cup match and we needed extra time to over come them. From that we learnt that although cup football has its exciting moments, you need to be on your guard especially against teams from lower down”.

Finding balance

Prior to the kick off for the opening rounds of the Nedbank Cup, which should be some time in mid March, Chiefs have four league fixtures to fulfill.

The Chiefs central defender says that doing well in those matches will work towards Chiefs going far in the Cup. “We need to be more consistent in the league and we need to strive towards winning our next couple of league games, and playing well in those matches is also a target of ours. Should we get things right with our league results it will be the perfect preparations for our Cup ambitions, at the moment we need to understand that from now till the season wraps in May. We basically fighting on two fronts, we looking to improve on our position in the league and then we would like to hoist another trophy this season”.