Chiefs face tricky City test as the pressure increases on all the title challengers

24 April 2017 - 18:19 By Mninawa Ntloko And Marc Strydom
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The embers of discontent were unmistakable in the stands at FNB Stadium on Saturday night and Kaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela will be desperate to prevent them from blowing up into a flame in the coming days.

Chiefs’ defeat to Supersport United in the quarterfinals of the Nedbank Cup at the 2010 World Cup final venue will have suddenly turned the screws on the coach as the league title now represents the last chance for silverware for AmaKhosi this season.

Komphela has led a pretty charmed life since the beginning of the year and has not had to deal with the angry fans who attended Chiefs games hellbent on making life difficult for him towards the end of last year.

The Chiefs coach will want to give assures that he still has things very much under control when his charges travel to the Mother City to face leaders Cape Town City in a tricky must-win league match at Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday night.

  • Stuart Baxter and Steve Komphela pay tribute to Chiefs coaching legend Jeff ButlerKaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela and ex-Amakhosi boss Stuart Baxter have paid their respects to the legacy left at the club of one of their predecessors‚ Jeff Butler‚ who died on Saturday. 

The third-placed Chiefs are a point behind the leaders and a victory in Cape Town will go a long way towards calming the grumblings that greeted the defeat to Supersport.

Given that Chiefs face the possibility of finishing a second season in a row without winning a trophy and City are starting to believe they can win a maiden league title‚ Tuesday night’s showdown could be an explosive affair.

Komphela conceded that the trip to Cape Town would not be a walk in the park‚ given City’s tenacity under coach Eric Tinkler.

‘‘They are lethal on the transition. They are set up nicely and they know how to screen‚ and once the get the ball they come straight at you‚” he said.

“So that’s one thing that you need to be careful about. And we need to be careful that our game model does not play into their hands.

“We know that on transitions they will punish you like they have never seen goalposts before.”

Fellow title challengers Bidvest Wits (second on the standings) and Mamelodi Sundowns (fourth) will all be in action on a night where even a draw could prove costly to the chasing sides.

As Komphela himself rightfully pointed a couple of days ago‚ ‘‘It's squeaky bum time.”

Tuesday night’s PSL fixtures (all matches kick off at 7:30pm):

Bidvest Wits vs SuperSport United at Bidvest Stadium

Mamelodi Sundowns vs Ajax Cape Town at Loftus Versfeld Stadium

Polokwane City vs Golden Arrows at Peter Mokaba Stadium

Bloemfontein Celtic vs Highlands Park at Dr Molemela Stadium

Chippa United vs Maritzburg United at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium

Cape Town City vs Kaizer Chiefs at Cape Town Stadium

— TMG Digital/TMG Sport

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