The Citizen (Gauteng)

Prepare for goals in the big Soweto derby

- @SbongsKaDo­nga

Ijoked with a photograph­er friend that at last the captains of Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs have ended their long spells without lifting real trophies as they posed with the Absa Premiershi­p trophy during a Soweto derby media conference earlier this week.

I don’t think it is right for someone to pose with a league trophy like that because, as Pitso Mosimane always stresses, you have to sweat blood for that privilege.

Neither side has done enough over the past few years to be able to celebrate and hoist a trophy – a feeling every player aspires to and every fan wishes to see his or her favourite team doing.

But with the captains having been reminded how it feels with their short bonding session with the Premiershi­p trophy, I hope they will now go and work hard so that they be the ones lifting it in May.

That hard work of course has to start today in the derby. We want a winner today, not a draw. No matter how exciting the match becomes, a draw just spoils it as the festive mood the derby brings dies with the final whistle if there is no winner.

The bragging ends right there. But if there is a winner it continues for a long time with the winning team’s fans regaling anyone who cares to listen about how

Sibongisen­i Gumbi

they beat their rivals and how it felt. I want that. It is good for football.

A friend who is a Buccaneer has been telling me all week of how they will demolish Amakhosi should they bring the same lineup they used in last weekend’s Telkom Knockout win over Black Leopards.

I would love to hear him brag- ging all of next week – or to see how he handles it when Chiefs have dealt with him. I will of course taunt him should Pirates be the ones hammered today. What I enjoy most is that because of my job, I am not allowed to pick sides between the two and whoever gets the beating, I can taunt. Okay, you got me. And the fact that uBab’Hadebe made me like the other Soweto giant even more although resting for now in the ABC Motsepe League.

Maybe I should join the crowds as well today and start the popular song As’phelelanga but change the lyrics to Kushod’iSwallows as’phelelanga. I hope someone doesn’t see this because she will then force me to rather watch the derby at home so that I may not embarrass her with my tuneless singing.

I may not know how today’s game will pan out but I foresee goals – five of them. He has gone crazy, I hear you mutter to yourself, but you will be calling me a genius when the final whistle blows. Another thing I don’t know is whether any of the two will be crowned champions at the end of the season but what I am sure of is that one between Itu Khune and Happy Jele will not be hoisting the Premiershi­p trophy.

Wherever you are watching, please be safe and avoid doing things that will land you in jail.

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