Tsamaya

This week’s soccer buzz

● You could hear a pin drop this week with people waiting for the Orlando Pirates assistant coach Rulani Mokwena to give the Soweto derby clash against Kaizer Chiefs in Durban yesterday some vava voom with his off-the-cuff exhilarating comments, but it was not to be. Mokwena was deprived of a platform to address any of the media events building up to the match. Even his much anticipated radio interview turned into a damp squib when he mentioned no words about the coaching capacity of his esteemed colleagues in Naturena.

● Pitso Mosimane was known for his jingling acts on the field in his heyday, but what we didn’t know was that he was intending to continue with it in his coaching career. Jingles caught the eye at Bafana Bafana’s Nelson Mandela Challenge match against Uruguay on Tuesday when he assumed the role of Stuart Baxter in Bafana’s change room. As brief as it was, Jingles’s appearance set tongues wagging about Baxsteen’s future, with many interpreting the gesture as the way of reintroducing Mosimane to the team.

● Bantwana Bantwana, our U-17 national women’s team, must have had a rude awakening when they rocked up at OR Tambo Airport on Friday only to be greeted by no one in particular following their dismal first-round exit from the Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay. Even the overzealous Safa suits who never miss a picture opportunity were nowhere to be seen to welcome the team they touted as favourites when they were sending them off to South America.

● We all know that Giovanni Solinas is not expected to stay that long at Chiefs but for the head honchos at Naturena to give the Italian a small car, fit for students, to drive himself around Jozi, is way below justification. The coach deserves better wheels if he is to fully focus on driving Amakhosi back to their glory days. It was with shame when Tsamaya saw Solinas sauntering to the derby presser in Parktown this week behind the wheel of a small jalopy that didn’t seem fit to inspire him to open up about his struggles at Naturena.

● Bidvest Wits coach Gavin Hunt clearly thinks Tsamaya is running a MickeyMouse operation. When asked this week whether he would be interested in signing out-of-favour George Lebese from Mamelodi Sundowns, “Huntie” tried to pull a fast one over us by declaring in broad daylight that he’s never heard of the midfielder we were asking him about. We understand that Hunt did not want to talk openly about his transfer targets but he is such a chancer for even dreaming that he can put the ball between the legs of Tsamaya, the king of dribblers.