Posted in News on Aug 25, 2007.
The Chiefs skipper turned up at the ABSA Stadium a few minutes prior to his team mates completing an evening training session on Friday, which started out in windy and uncharacteristically cold weather at the ABSA Stadium, for the better part of the hour and a half session Chiefs had to go through their routines in a torrential down pour as the heavens opened up over Durban.
Amakhosi coach Muhsin Ertugral will be hoping that the only down pour on Saturday evening will come in the form of a barrage from his players on the Cosmos goal, as Chiefs aim to keep their 100% start to the season in tact.
Ertugral pronounced himself happy with the outcome of Friday evenings training session, with more rain forecast for Saturday evening getting his team out in the rain on Friday according to Ertugral was beneficial to his teams preparation for the match as they got to get a feel of what the conditions will be like when the match kicks off at 20h00 on Saturday.
Cyril here no bags in sight
Upon his arrival back in the country on Friday Cyril Nzama to his dismay found that his luggage had not made it on the flight from London’s Heathrow airport to OR Tambo international in Johannesburg, as his flight from Aberdeen to London had arrived late at Heathrow and as a result Nzama’s bags were unable to make the connection to Johannesburg.
Despite his luggage being way laid Nzama managed to go home and assembled his Chiefs gear and was back at the airport in time to join Amakhosi team manager Bobby Motaung on a flight to Durban late afternoon, even the gloomy Durban weather could not keep the smile off the Chiefs skippers face who was over joyed to meet up with his Chiefs team mates. Nzama commenting afterwards on the days drama said “Unfortunately my bags did not join me on the trip home, I am glad to be back an I never expected to arrive this quickly in Durban and I am grateful for the fact that I am safe and sound and somewhat drenched in Durb’s”.
Comprehensive training
Muhsin Ertugral stood with his arms folded in the centre of the Kings Park field on Friday evening, he was not moved by the rain, which began just before Chiefs just before the midway point of the training session and continued on falling incessantly for the rest of Friday evening into the early hours of Saturday morning.
Chiefs Turkish born mentor felt the turf to gauge the wetness of the turf and mull over his final thoughts ahead of the meeting with Cosmos as he and his team departed the ABSA Stadium for their hotel, Ertugral commenting once the training session had been rounded up said.
“We had to work on a few tactical manoeuvres specifically related to the game against Cosmos, it pleased me to see that the guys were able to get things the way I asked them to do it.
It is up to us to put all of our training ground activities into good use during Saturday’s game, I also told the guys not to go hard in the training on Friday the pitch was wet and when the rain started we had to tell the guys to take it easy as we did not want anyone to injure themselves unnecessarily”.
