A lot to learn from beer cup

Kaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela says the Carling Black Label Champion Cup against Orlando Pirates at FNB on Saturday serves as a platform to see the readiness of his players ahead of the new season and it also gives other teams an opportunity to see how the preparations of the two Soweto giants have been going ahead of the new season.

Having joined Amakhosi in 2015 from Maritzburg United, Komphela revealed that he always watched the pre-season game, dubbed as the beer cup.

“It has always, even before when I came to Chiefs whenever the Carling Black Label Cup was playing it was a measure, PSL teams would also be watching,” said the Chiefs coach.

“The Cup is more of a measure of the season and it is more like your previous pre-season tournaments, it determines your season because you prepare in the pre-season and after your preparation, you determine your season. Your measure is your first match, so bragging rights yes, the measure of your season, yes.”

Meanwhile, Komphela added that his squad is fairly balanced having signed a couple of players, but says a coach can never be satisfied with their squad.

“We are done, but in football, we never stop searching,” the Chiefs coach said.

“Neither Pep Guardiola nor Jose Mourinho can be. But as it is, we are fairly balanced maybe one thing we still saying that we should get right is to find somebody who will score goals for us.”

Chiefs have former Portuguese club Estoril’s Arnaldo Gomes, former Moroka Swallows’ Darren Lurrie and Argentine Jonathan Philippe training with them with the hopes of impressing Komphela.