ZWANE: CHIEFS NEED DIVINE INTERVENTION
ARTHUR Zwane walked the talk yesterday, with his spread of grey hair, tired face and red eyes backing Kaizer Chiefs’ “need for divine intervention”.
Zwane has endured four challenging months since his appointment as Chiefs coach.
His team has failed to stamp their authority amid “project revival”, dropping points in the Premiership, while they crashed out of the MTN8 semi-finals in Durban last Sunday.
But as if things couldn’t get worse for Zwane and his troops, they will face highly-charged rivals Orlando Pirates in the first Soweto derby of the season tomorrow. Zwane knows this fixture all too well, given the fact that he played and won the derby with both teams, using gospel music to calm his nerves on the day.
“Some players find a way to ease the situation by playing music. Some pray, and I used to play gospel music to calm my nerves,” Zwane said.
But a lot has changed since then. Zwane is now faced with the task of winning his first Soweto derby as a coach in his team’s last match of the first half of the campaign.
Pirates won’t be easy customers, given they are high in confidence after beating Mamelodi Sundowns to cruise to the MTN8 final.
Zwane, though, is hoping that prayer and other superstitions can come into their aid ahead of his first derby as Chiefs coach tomorrow.
“Football is a funny game, it’s very unpredictable. Whatever help we may need for us to win games but what I know is prayer is everything,” he said.
“Some people have their own way of doing things in terms of the culture – and we respect that as well. But at the end of the day prayer is everything.”
Chiefs haven’t endured a roller-coaster run of form due to a lack of trying, no. Instead, they have been let down by porous defending and poor finishing.
Such that Zwane is confident that if they continue to work hard, they will be able to get a pinch of luck and find their scoring ways in front of goal.
“We do not need Lady Luck. I believe you create your own luck by working hard. And I, for one, have worked hard to be where I am right now,” Zwane said.
“Some will say I am lucky, but I don’t think luck will take you where you want to be. It’s what you put in that will take you where you want to be later.”
A Chiefs win over Pirates could take them as high as third on the league standings. But Zwane is not thinking about their title ambitions given that it’s matchday 13. “It’s really a big one. There are bragging rights, three points and things that we want to protect. We, including myself, want to win this game,” Zwane said. “Yes, it’s a big game, but we still have a lot to play for. We’ve only played 12 games. The two teams want to win. But I don’t think it’ll be the title decider.”