Will Dolly be iceberg that sinks Chiefs?

DESPITE his fan club growing by the day – thanks to his spirited performances for the national Under-23 side and Mamelodi Sundowns – it’s his critics’ voices that Keagan Dolly hears the most. And that’s because his biggest critic is himself.

Dolly is very honest; he admits that one of his shortfalls at Ajax Cape Town was that he knew he would be in the starting XI no matter what.

That led to him not pushing himself. There is none of that at Sundowns, with quality players in every department who have forced him to constantly strive to improve. He has done that, impressing the hard-to-please Pitso Mosimane who has made the 22-year-old a focal point in the Brazilians’ attack.

But Dolly owes his form to the South African U23 side. He started with them before joining Sundowns in August, scoring three goals in two games against Zimbabwe in July. That did wonders for his confidence – he went on to cement a starting place with the star-studded Sundowns, and led his country to their first Olympics appearance in 15 years. “It was a privilege for me to be the captain of the (U23) team,” Dolly said.

“We have lots of quality individuals. I didn’t have the best of tournaments but I worked for the team where we were striving towards one goal, which is to qualify the team for Rio. We did that.

“We would have meetings in the hotel, just us players, and talk about what’s at stake. We knew that qualifying will give us opportunities to go play overseas, or get better contracts at our clubs.”

Now, Dolly is working towards something else: helping Sundowns to finally beat Kaizer Chiefs in a cup final when the two sides meet this evening at 6pm at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in the Telkom KO final.

Chiefs have won all eight finals they have contested against Sundowns. This is the biggest rivalry in the country in terms of trophies.

The Brazilians boast a record six league titles in the PSL era (the new format started in 1996) while Amakhosi are the cup kings, with more knockout trophies than any other team in the country. It will be a titanic battle but Dolly hopes to be the iceberg that finally sinks Chiefs. “Qualifying for the Olympics is the highlight of my career and, hopefully, now I win the cup with Sundowns,” he said. “It’s going to be my first final because I missed the Nedbank Cup final (with Ajax) against Sundowns.”

Ironically, Dolly missed the Nedbank Cup final against Sundowns last season due to his workload. He wasn’t himself leading up to the final but expected to play, as his last hurrah before going to Chloorkop. Instead, he didn’t play and Ajax lost. He looks set to turn out today, having trained with his clubmates yesterday.

Dolly says that he wasn’t ready for Bafana Bafana when first called up two years ago. “Playing for Sundowns where I compete against the best, I think I would be ready 9f given (another) opportunity,” he said.

This isn’t just anyone speaking, it’s Dolly’s biggest critic… Keagan Dolly.