Soweto derby knockout

Sibongiseni Gumbi

Giovanni Solinas will probably come out either a hero or villain of today’s Telkom Knockout Cup semifinal where they host Orlando Pirates at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium.

It may seem a bit unfair that Solinas might find himself under pressure and having to face the “Solinas must go” chants should he fail to guide his team to a win this afternoon. But this is the grim reality.

Life could be really hard if Chiefs lose at Moses Mabhida Stadium this afternoon as this would be his second successive defeat to their bitter rivals. Solinas was on the losing end on October 27 as the Buccaneers won 2-1.

“We took lessons from the last derby. It taught us that we need fighting spirit and concentration,” he said during a media conference this week. Solinas has been at the club for just over four months but he is expected to perform miracles and turn the underachieving team into world-beaters.

Fair? Probably not. But Solinas knew what he was getting himself into when he took over a team that had gone three seasons without a trophy. It was either the Italian was oblivious, ignorant or just super-confident as he didn’t seem to care when this fact was put to him, replying with a “why do you have to be negative?”

Solinas said he was happy his team were cutting out the mistakes they had made in the previous derby – a game which seemed was his own measuring tool for how far he has come in his mission at Naturena.

“The fighting spirit and our concentration has improved and we did not concede a goal in our last three games. We will be much better in this game.”

Another factor Solinas was happy about was that he had all his trusted soldiers available at training this week, unlike the last time where his star player Khama Billiat only had one training session before making his Soweto derby debut.

Also see Pages 45 & 46