Posted in News on Feb 01, 2005.
Leopards have not had it easy against Chiefs since their debut season of 2002/3 in the Castle Premiership when they shocked a confident Amakhosi 3-0 in front of their own supporters at the Ellis Park stadium. It eventually turned out that Leopards would suffer the wrath of the mighty Amakhosi every time the two would meet until this day.
Under the current season Black Leopards, guided by former national U-23 & Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba have lost on three occasions against the Champs, first during the Telkom Charity Cup, then the SAA Cup quarterfinals when Collins Mbesuma the Chiefs deadly striker ran havoc on Leopards defenders to clinch a 2-1 victory for his side. The two met again in a first round league encounter in Thohoyandou and Amakhosi ripped the Leopards skin off with a convincing 3-0 win and Mbesuma scoring twice with David Mathebula sealing the victory with his debut goal for Amakhosi.
If there is anything to be read from the recent Limpopo derby when Mashaba’s charges gave away a 3-1 lead to lose by 4-3 to Dynamos, it will be questions around Mashaba’s defence and tactical discipline. However, Amakhosi Communications Manager Putco Mafani warns of complacency, “If one looks at how Pirates lost to Supersport Utd recently and how Leopards lost to Dynamos, one could easily conclude there are no more easy games in the league today. From these study cases we can learn that it is never over until it’s over. Leopards are wounded but we are hungry and we’ll fight until the last minute”, said Mafani.
Asked about the recent impressive results of the past two seasons against their visitors Mafani said,” There is no more room for history in our football, but on the contrary, upsets and surprises are the order of the day. It’s about who wants the win most. There is no other option but to skin them alive!”
The Naturena boys have not had it easy either, pressure from supporters and the toil of playing catch up with the rest of the clubs due to their cup runs towards the end of last year, plus the mental fatigue keeps creeping in and they will need stern character to pull a win against the wounded Leopards.
During their recent visit to Thohoyandou, coach Ted Dumitru had preferred a younger squad and boasted beating Leopards with his “Chappies Little League” players including David Mathebula, Lucky Mzizi, Gerald Sibeko, Derrick Spencer, etc but one does not doubt there will not be any space for this sort of gambling this time around if the champs are serious about chasing the likes of Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns at the top of the table.
Tickets for this game are being sold at Computicket outlets for R20 adults and R10 juveniles.
The game kicks off at 19H00 (7pm).
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Released by the Kaizer Chiefs Communications & Media Management department.
