Chiefs can end derby misery
Mega carryover-boosted Soccer 6 and 10 pools add to the excitement as Kaizer Chiefs seek to smash Orlando Pirates’ long unbeaten run in the Soweto derby tomorrow.
Here comes a great soccer weekend with TAB soccer pool carryovers, an ever-popular Soweto derby and loads of other quality clashes.
The carryovers include R500,000 to the principal Soccer 10 pool tomorrow, plus a R100,000 add-in to a Soccer 6 pool (S6 V2 P1). The Soccer 10 pool should soar past the R3-million mark and the Soccer 6 pool will be big as well.
Kaizer Chiefs’ early season form not only sees them top of the Premier Soccer League table, but also in pole position to win the first of back-to-back derbies against arch rivals Orlando Pirates tomorrow.
The Telkom Knockout quarter-final tie at the Moses Mabhida Stadium comes seven days ahead of the league meeting between the pair at Soccer City.
For Chiefs to capitalise on their winning start to the new season will not only give them bragging rights and inflict further pain on their beleaguered rivals, but also end a recordbreaking streak of misery in the Soweto derby.
It was in December five years ago that Chiefs last had success over Pirates in a league game, in which Siphiwe Tshabalala (now without a club) and Siphelele Mthembu, on the margins at Cape Town city, scored secondhalf goals for a 2-0 win.
Since then there have been 12 derbies, five of them won by Pirates and seven drawn. It is the longest unbeaten run since the first derby way back in 1970 and has said more about Chiefs’ poor form in recent years that Pirates’ dominance.
But there has also been a longstanding inconsistency about the derby, where form goes out the window and the pressure of the occasion ensures anything can happen. It makes it a difficult forecast.
Punters will find it probably easier to tip the other Telkom Knockout ties this weekend - like Mamelodi Sundowns at Chippa United in Port Elizabeth on Sunday and SuperSport United tomorrow evening against Lamontville Golden arrows in Nelspruit.
Tonight’s opening quarterfinal between hosts Maritzburg United and feisty Highlands Park is another match that’s nigh impossible to predict. But it’s worth noting that Maritzburg have won three successive league games. To take a bet, go to www.bettingworld.co.za or www.tabonline.co.za or www.soccer6.co.za