AmaZulu FC v Kaizer Chiefs

23 October, Moses Mabhida Stadium, 15h30

hy Chiefs have an upper hand… Ntokozo Sikhakhane – Former Chiefs & AmaZulu FC midfielder

It’s going to be quite an interesting me because both Chiefs and AmaZulu ant a trophy in their cabinet, badly . It’s been years of Chiefs not winning ything. Even (for) AmaZulu, it’s been ay too long. I see Chiefs going through the final. In actual fact, my bet for is competition before it got underay was that Chiefs and Pirates would ake it to the final and I still stick my words that it will be a Soweto erby final. I’ll tell you why Chiefs ve an upper hand. They can play anyhere around the country and still have me advantage. We are not talking out teams like TS Galaxy with their 00 supporters, we are talking Chiefs re. So, Durban will be no different r Chiefs, they have more fans in KZN and they will pack the stadium. It’s an important game for them. It’s a little bit tricky for AmaZulu because they have a new coach in charge, who’s still trying to get the right combinations. With that said, though, it might work out in their favour because players might just double their efforts trying to impress the new coach. He might end up confused as to who to play and who to leave out, which all makes it an exciting

game to look forward to. But at the end of the day, I see Chiefs winning. They’ve been doing well recently, so their confidence is higher than AmaZulu’s, who haven’t been doing so well. The advantage is with Chiefs. I can tell you right now, the Chiefs players are feeling the pressure so heavily, they are feeling pressure to get to the final. If they don’t, it’s going to be a big problem for them because once the Chiefs supporters start booing you, you can’t perform.

Once they can get to the final, I believe they will win this cup. I believe in coach Arthur Zwane. Yes, he didn’t start the season too well, but it was only a matter of time before he got it right. Their new striker, (Bonfils-Caleb) Bimenyimana, I believe he came at the right time. Yes, they have good players in Khama (Billiat), Keagan Dolly and (Nkosingiphile) Ngcobo, but they needed a killer up front. They needed someone who’s just going to score with his head, his nose, his knee, anything, as long as he

scores. His confidence is higher now and I believe he’s going to help Chiefs. If AmaZulu approach this game with a mentality of ‘we have an away goal advantage, let’s defend or sit back’, then

they’ll have a problem. I’d advise them to attack because the minute they sit back, then Chiefs will come at them. They’ll pile the pressure on them and once they can score an early goal, AmaZulu will be finished.”

We’ll definitely have a game plan for them Keagan Buchanan – AmaZulu FC midfielder

“Look, obviously, we know from a score perspective (that) we go into the game with an away goal advantage, which sets up the game for a nice clash. They’ll have to come out and win. They have to score basically. It will be an open game, which means it will be a free-flowing one. It will most probably be a sold-out match and that might be to their advantage or disadvantage and everyone who’s played for a big team knows that. But for us, it’s not to focus on them. We understand the magnitude of the game, but it’s just a normal game in a sense that we’ve got players who’ve played at the highest level… your Soweto derbies, CAF campaigns and so on. Just because we went ahead and scored a goal doesn’t mean we’re going to now park a bus and stuff, you know those boring games. They’ve got a good run of form now, but you know in cup ties, form doesn’t really count. It’s who wants it more on the day. For us, it’s just a matter of implementing what the coach wants us to do. Different coach for us now, which obviously means the approach won’t be the same as it was during the first leg. We’ll definitely have a game plan for them, we just need to implement and execute it. If we execute the coach’s plan, we will win. The pressure is a bit more on them. Chiefs players know that playing for that brand, there’s always a lot of pressure. They haven’t been successful for a while now and obviously they are hungry to succeed. They’ll want to be the crop that changes the club’s fortunes. But unfortunately (for them), so do we at AmaZulu. It’s been too long since the club won silverware, we want to change that. We also want to succeed. We have a chairman who wants to succeed and we want to do it for him. We just want to get to the final and win the trophy eventually. It doesn’t matter who we’ll face there, but what I know (is that) it will be tough as both Pirates and Sundowns are good football-playing teams. If we get to the final, we’d

have played all these teams (Chiefs, Pirates and Sundowns) already in the league this season. Having a new coach shouldn’t be seen as a disadvantage for us, to be honest, because we are already taking well to his plan and the principles of how he wants to play. They mustn’t think it will be easy (for them) because of a new coach. It’s going to be more difficult, in my opinion. Knowing coach Arthur, I don’t think they’d want to underestimate us. I think they’ll look at it and say, ‘New coach, players will want to prove themselves to him’, which makes it even more difficult.”

Chiefs players are angry Justice Skhalazo – Chiefs supporter

“Eish, I feel sorry for AmaZulu. They are meeting us at a time we are finding our rhythm. Chiefs players are angry. Never mind the fact that we lost to Chippa United in the league, but now, more than before, I can tell you, we are coming alright. We play good football and the players are finally understanding our coach. Our players this season can see we are tired of being the laughing stock. We need our dignity back and they can see we want trophies now, starting with this MTN8. MTN8 means ‘Money To Naturena’ by the way. We are going

to beat AmaZulu 2-0. We won’t take them for granted because they have good players like Veli Mothwa in goals… there’s also our former son George (Maluleka) and the dangerous Mhango, but we don’t fear them. I can tell you now, we will leave Moses Mabhida very happy and go back there again on the 5th of November to lift this trophy. That stadium is also our home ground.”

We’re not scared of them Luyanda ‘Usuthu Queen’ Mbuyazi – AmaZulu FC supporter

“We’re looking forward to seeing how our boys will do in this game under our new coach. If he gets the combinations right, we’re going to win. AmaZulu is going to the final. I believe in my boys, we are going to win this game. Chiefs’ form right now isn’t good at all, to be honest. I know very well the stadium

will be packed with Chiefs supporters, but we don’t care, we are not scared of them. We will paint the stadium

Green and White as well. It will be war. Everyone wants to win this cup.

Ever since our club president (Sandile Zungu) came, it’s his dream to win something with AmaZulu and I urge

the boys to win this MTN8 for us. Our previous ownership didn’t do anything for the club. Mr Zungu, he’s passionate about the club and wants it to win. We are going to beat Chiefs. My dream final is AmaZulu v Sundowns.”