There were hand shakes and smiles all round as Kaizer Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp came face to face with Mamelodi Sundowns coaching duo of former Amakhosi captain Neil Tovey and his co coach at Sundowns Argentinean Miguel Gamondi.

The trio met up at an ABSA Cup press conference held at the Premier Soccer League’s offices in Johannesburg midday on Monday. The Sundowns duo said that the Brazilians were firstly focusing on their up coming crunch league fixture against Classic on Wednesday and will only begin to think about their semifinal match up against Chiefs from Thursday onwards.

Amakhosi coach Ernst Middendorp when probed about the fact that Chiefs have had the upper hand over Sundowns in cup competitions over the last twenty years said "what happened two seasons or ten seasons ago means nothing it is just history, 15h15 on Saturday in Rustenburg is a different story and we will need to write our own history."

The Chiefs coach also added that Sundowns would be a tough hurdle to climb, "we are expecting a tough game on Saturday, Sundowns are a team with many quality players and we know of their abilities I must stress that we will have done thorough preparations for this game and will leave nothing to chance."

Neil Tovey added the last words to the conference when he said, “I would like to say that I have a great amount of respect for Ernst Middendorp and what he has done with his team. I feel that amongst all coaches in the league we need to forge a better relationship with each other and if coaches can respect each other’s achievements soccer will go along way in the country.

As Sundowns get ready to firstly mount a challenge on the league before they concentrate on Amakhosi, Chiefs are in the fortunate position of being able to use the entire week to prepare for their ABSA Cup semifinal. The game will be played at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Rustenburg