As the holiday season begins to take a hold of the country and with many people looking to end the year with a special bonus, or their 13th cheque from their employees we too will be aiming for a special holiday send off. Our holiday bonus has two parts to it their first is victory this Sunday against Maritzburg United at Vodacom Loftus in Tshwane, as you might be well aware that the capital will be our home for the rest of the season.

The Opposition

To be honest one will have to say that Maritzburg United have hit a real slump in form recently losing four league games in a row, overall they have not been as impressive as they were in the start of the season. Having said that there is always the but factor and in this instance we need to be wary of a Maritzburg back lash, as we saw last season when we played against them in Durban. No matter what form a team is in the visit of Kaizer Chiefs, always awakens something in them and they come out of their slumber and give us a real fight.

We need to guard against complacency and thinking that the game is won before we even get to the stadium, all the hard work we have done in the past week on the training ground needs to be put to good use on Sunday. I am of the opinion that no matter how bad a team is playing all they need is one bright spark amongst them; to ignite the fuse and things can turn around. Maritzburg have many skilful and gifted players, one of whom is the prolific goal scoring talents of Sandile Ndlovu, with four goals already this season he has shown that he can be a hand full- for defenders.

Maritzburg United in coach Kosta Papic posses a shrewd tactician who plans well usually gets things right against the big teams, as he demonstrated when his team defeated Pirates earlier this year as well as when they recently played out an entertaining game with Mamelodi Sundowns as they eventually lost two goal to one. Overall we will approach this game with a lot of caution, we do remain optimistic that we can keep up our recent run of form and will need to do everything we can to win this game.

Team News

We are fortunate to have most of our players fit and raring to go for the game against Maritzburg on Sunday, we do have one casualty in the form of Rotson Kilambe who will miss the game as he tends to a knee injury. Kilambe twisted his knee in the game against Pirates and has been unable to train with the team this past week; while we have Kilambe out I must add that we have a number of guys waiting in the wings for their chance out in the middle. One of the guys who has been looking particularly sharp and showing the kind of form that made us bring him to Chiefs initially, is striker Louis Agyemang who over the past few weeks has been really impressive at training.

Over the past year or so he might have been lacking the spark I saw from him a few years ago in Ghana, I can truly say that what I have seen of Louis he looks like the Agyemang of old. A lot was and still is needed from him to convince the doubters that he was well worth bringing him to the PSL, he looks to have his confidence and his good touch, which has evaded him back once again.

Also available for this coming weekends game is Gert Schalkwyk who was given time off as his father had passed on, we needed to give him time to get a grip with what has happened. It was important for him to get himself together once again as he has, we did not want to rush him back into things I do now believe that he has dealt with the loss of his father and he has been shown a willingness to work hard to fight for his place in the team once again. Cyril Nzama has shaken off his hamstring injury like wise Gerald Sibeko has also recovered sufficiently, from an ankle injury to make himself available for Sunday’s game.

Battle for the Championship

We trained every day this past week through searing heat as this was the final week of the year that we had to put a lot of work in, with a game in midweek next week added to Sunday’s game we will be unable to carry out the same kind of intense training that we did this week. The team is really serious about catching up to the league leaders and we are determined to end the year, being close to the likes of Silver Stars and Wits University.

There can be no doubting the fact that some of the teams on top of us are feeling the pressure of the chasing group, which includes us, and the likes of Orlando Pirates, as teams ahead of us have dropped points in the past week. We saw Silver Stars, Sundowns and Wits unable to consolidate their position in the top as they dropped points, and it shows that this years Championship race could go all the way to the last weekend of the season with so many teams in with a shot of winning the league. For us the task is a simple one and that is to go into the break with twenty-four points, which will send out a clear message to any one that they will write us off at their peril.

For now that is all and to all the fans going on holiday this weekend and next take care of yourselves on the road, do not endanger your own lives and the lives of others be well over the festive and New Year holidays.

Your Coach

Ernst Middendorp


Kaizer Chiefs Head Coach