Fit Chiefs fired up for derby

Saturday’s Soweto derby is not just a game – it is “The Game”‚ Kaizer Chiefs coach Giovanni Solinas has said‚ even adding that it should be spelled with a capital ‘G’.

As Chiefs meet Pirates for the second time this season‚ in Saturday’s Telkom Knockout semifinal at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban‚ Solinas admitted that for Amakhosi‚ and perhaps himself‚ the match is a particularly big one.

Solinas lost his first derby 2-1 in the league at the FNB Stadium in Soweto in October.

And derby defeats never go down too well for Chiefs’ success-hungry supporters.

Added to that‚ Amakhosi have not won a trophy in three-and-a-half seasons now.

Solinas‚ in his first season‚ has already lost a chance to rectify that by losing over two legs of the MTN8 semifinals.

He will know that‚ with Chiefs’ league form a mixed bag to see Amakhosi in fifth place in the Absa Premiership despite some strong signings‚ a second semifinal exit of the season – especially at the hands of Pirates – will make his position at Naturena just that bit more tenuous.

He admitted as much‚ saying at Thursday’s pre-derby media conference at the PSL offices in Parktown: “But this is not a game – this is ‘The Game’.

“This is the game with a capital letter ‘G’.

“And we arrive in this game much better than last time. Because last time we had players injured‚ we had players not training for five or six days.

“For example Khama [Billiat] – we had a problem with Khama‚ who had not trained for six days. He trained only on the day before the derby.

“In the last derby, we did not have Lebogang Manyama.

“Now it’s much better because all players are available.”

Saturday’s semifinal will be staged in Durban as the FNB Stadium was unavailable due to a clash with an alreadybooked prayer meeting.

Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic will make a final decision on Friday whether to include the Bafana Bafana duo of Innocent Maela and midfielder Vincent Pule in the squad.

Maela and Pule started for Bafana in the 1-1 international friendly draw against Paraguay in Durban on Tuesday night and Sredojevic said he would run the rule over them at their last training session before making a final decision.

He said Bucs would show Chiefs respect as their rivals had proven individual players who had what it took to cause the Bucs problems.