While the talk all week in the taverns, taxis and on the telephones has been about Saturday’s big match, and as the tension begins to fill the air not just in Soweto or Johannesburg but also across the country. We wound down our preparations for the game with a training session mid afternoon on Friday, and it is a really funny thing that when it comes close to a match against Pirates every one is fired up and fit.

Before I get into all things Black and White I would like to go back a couple of days to our league game against Amazulu in Durban, with the first thing obviously being that the result was one which we truly deserved for all our dominance of the game. We played some good one touch football, which was at the centre of our first goal, which Kaizer Junior took well under pressure from a number of Amazulu defenders and he thought off his feet to head over Camara the Amazulu keeper.

I also feel that what helped us keep control of the game was the fact that our midfielders really made their presence felt. Gerald Sibeko put in a sound performance and was really unlucky not to have found his way onto the score sheet as he had, as he brought out the best in Camara with two well taken efforts one in each half on goal. The first was a well executed diving header off a David Radebe cross and the other a well timed volley from the edge of the 18 yard area in the second half, after David Obua and Scara initially did well to open up the Usuthu defence.

With regards to our second goal, credit must go to David Radebe for being able to find himself in so much space inside the opposition penalty area and to Siphiwe Mkhonza for the accuracy from his long thrown in. They really used the set piece to good effect and it shows, that any kind of dead ball situation in and around the penalty area can be made to count all you need to is think quicker than the opposition. I do also think that we should have scored more goals and killed off the game instead of cooling down after scoring the second goal.

That was to be expected once we went two goals up, with a number of guys on two yellow cards; I think some of the guys began thinking about Pirates long before the final whistle. With the score as it was I don’t feel it was a problem, with our next game after Pirates a week away we will have sufficient time to recover from what is sure to be a bruising encounter against Pirates on Saturday. First of all I must say that what ever we have achieved against Pirates in the past year is now behind us, we need to rewrite a new chapter in our history against them with a win on Saturday.

There is no easy game in a game of such a magnitude and with so much pride at stake one cannot expect to go into these games with the same kind of approach you did last time out. The truth is that our entire mind set for this game is changed, the way we will approach the game, down to our tactical and technical planning everything will be different. Indeed this is also a very different Orlando Pirates team and even though some of their early season form might have not been what they had hope, I feel they still are team filled with many classy players.

A number of other youngsters the likes of Excellent Walaza who was amongst the goal scorers when Pirates defeated Santos in midweek, at nighteen years of age he is showing a lot of promise. Along with Walaza Pirates have been using Leboghang Mokoena and Lebo Mbele to good effect in the recent past, I do though think that our defence is experienced enough to be able to with the threat posed by them.

What will be interesting on Saturday is to see how things will shape up in the midfield, particularly given the strength that both teams possess in this area. Pirates have to former Chiefs players in their midfield in the form of Jabu Mahlangu and Stanton Fredericks and it does not need one to have a degree, to know that they will be putting in extra effort to try and stop us. Possible inclusions in the Pirates midfield could include Onyekachi Okonkwo and Benedict Vilakazi, Okonkwo demonstrated in the ABSA Cup Final just how effective and dangerous he could be if given the time to dictate and control the midfield.

For now that is all I hope that we paint the FNB Stadium with a gold brush on Saturday afternoon, as we will need to have your support behind us to get what will be a very vital win against Pirates. A win on Saturday could see us move further up the table depending on results elsewhere, our aim is to keep up a 100% win rate going till the end of the year.

Yours for the Soweto derby




Ernst Middendorp