Chiefs win bridesmaid battle
For Pirates the defeat means they may well end campaign outside the top two spots
Kaizer Chiefs (1) 2 Orlando Pirates (0) 1
Pirates - Kwame Peprah (54m)
Chiefs - Reeve Frosler (18m), Eric Mathoho (81m)
● Kaizer Chiefs have injected some faint hope to the claim by their coach Stuart Baxter that they can still catch up to runaway Mamelodi Sundowns in the race to win the DStv Premiership title.
Eric Mothoho’s 81st minute headed goal off Keagan Dolly’s corner kick gave Amakhosi in a 2-1 victory, their third successive league triumph over Pirates something they last did in 1991.
The game looked heading for a draw when Pirates cancelled Reeve Frosler’s 18th minute opening strike in the 54th minute, the Ghanaian striker Kwame Peprah scoring his first derby goal and fifth league strike of the season.
The win boosts Chiefs slim hope of catching Sundowns, who remain 16 points clear at the top, although Amakhosi have three games in hand. Sundowns had a chance to widen the gap with a win over Maritzburg United in a match played late last night in Pietermaritzburg.
Baxter sounded very hopeful of taking Sundowns down to the wire for the league title ahead of this match, but having already dropped 22 points in 19 league encounters, the second spot remains the best bet.
Amakhosi’s erratic form suggests it may still be a big struggle to overtake Sundowns even if they win their case to play the two league matches against Lamontville Golden Arrows and Cape Town City that were cancelled in December because of the number of Covid-19 cases reported in Naturena.
Chiefs may be ending a seventh season without a trophy in the top flight, but one thing they’re pleasing and consoling their fans with is consistently beating their archrivals Pirates in Premiership encounters.
For Pirates the defeat means they may well finish outside the top two and fail for the third successive season to qualify for the Caf Champions League.
Perhaps the future of Bucs co-coaches Mandla Ncikazi and Fadlu Davids now hangs in a balance and may hinge on how the club performs in the Nedbank Cup and Caf Confederation Cup, the two competitions they still have a chance to win.
Suffering a double of league defeats against their rivals will certainly put more pressure on the Bucs duo to produce results in the remaining eight league matches.
Perhaps the future of Bucs co-coaches Mandla Ncikazi and Fadlu Davids now hangs in a balance
With this win Chiefs have taken their league victories over their Soweto archrivals to 16, since the launch of the Premier Soccer League in 1996-1997 season. Pirates only boast 12 wins in a derby that has produced as many as 24 stalemates.
Chiefs were a better team, especially in the first half of this encounter, and Frosler’s goal was a beauty which came through a well orchestrated build-up which involved Lebohang Manyama, Khama Billiat and Bernard Parker.
Billiat limped off with a thigh injury just before the break, compounding Chiefs’ problems in an attack that didn’t have the suspended Samir Nurkovic. But Chiefs still had gas to force the win, Mathoho brilliantly connecting with Dolly’s corner in front of the bemused Pirates goalkeeper Siyabonga Mpontshane. Chiefs though owe their win to their gloveman Brandon Petersen who produced a couple of stupendous saves in the second stanza, including the one in stoppage time when Terrence Dzvukamanja thought he had equalised for the Buccaneers.
The game may have lacked spark but ahead of kick-off there were a lot of activities outside the stadium where over 1 000 SA football fans demanded their return to the terraces.
Since March 2020 when cases of the coronavirus were discovered in SA, sports fans have been locked out of the gates.
But with the national state of disaster expected to be ended on March 15, it is hoped the sports organisations will be allowed to increase the number of supporters they allow at the stadiums. Currently only 2 000 spectators are permitted to watch any sporting event in SA.