Chiefs setting their sights on CAF glory
BANISH whatever thoughts you had of Kaizer Chiefs not taking continental football seriously. The current team want to be kings of Africa alright!
This much is evidenced by their 6-0 aggregate demolition of Madagascar Elgeco Plus in the first round of the Caf Confederation Cup.
Amakhosi are now awaiting the identity of their next opponents for the play-offs into the group stage of the continent’s second-tier club competition.
The draw for that will be made in Cairo on Friday and Ernst Middendorp’s side will come up against any one of the teams who were knocked out of the Champions League.
Chiefs’ comprehensive win is a far cry from the previous years when they contrived to make a mockery of the continental competitions either by not honouring a fixture or by fielding a weakened or coachless side.
Such had been the disdain with which they treated Caf events that they were banished from participating.
Now though they appear hungry for their second continental glory having won the Mandela Cup back in 2001.
Their 3-0 win in Madagascar courtesy of a brace from Pule Ekstein plus one from Ryan Moon tells the tale of a team that means business.
New coach Ernst Middendorp appears to have injected a new life into a team that was going nowhere fast under the tutelage of Italian Giovanni Solinas.
Ekstein was delighted to have contributed to the big win at the weekend, having come on as a substitute.
“I told myself that whenever I get a chance, I have to score but if I don’t then I have to create,” Ekstein said. “However it’s not about me but the team, so as long as the team won, I am happy.”
The midfielder did acknowledge though that the maths was not as easy as the scoreline suggests and that success was achieved through a decision to forget about the scoreline from the first leg.
“We’ve kept our heads up and we played very well, that’s why we ended up winning,” Ekstein said. “The opponents were tough, we saw them at Moses Mabhida Stadium, but we told ourselves that we are going to come here and play our normal football, so that we can win and go through to the next stage.”
Success in the next stage against a team that will be wounded by having failed to stay in the premier competition will not come easy and Chiefs will thus need to be at their utmost best to win.
But if their demolition of Elgeco is anything to go by, Ekstein and Co should make it to the group stages.