Kaizer Chiefs toil to draw against Gallants that leaves them in 14th place

It seems like three steps forward and two back for Arthur Zwane's new-look, young Kaizer Chiefs, and Sunday's 1-1 DStv Premiership draw against Marumo Gallants at Rustenburg's Royal Bafokeng Stadium continued in that vein.

Mahlatse Makudubela's opportunistic 12th-minute strike separated the teams for most of the game, until Zitha Kwinika headed in from a free-kick to level matters in the 84th.

One has to hand it to Zwane that he is the first Amakhosi coach in a number of years to strive for the expressive football that has always been Amakhosi's hallmark.

Attaining it with a young team might not be so easy and should be a project for the long term. Amakhosi though, are also impatient for trophies and results after seven past seasons without silverware.

The result of Sunday’s draw was that it left Amakhosi in 14th place, a position above Gallants, who fired 31-year-old coach Romain Folz this week and had Raymond Mdaka on the bench.

A game that was the subject of a court battle with municipality of Gallants' home city, Polokwane, who argued it should have been staged in the Limpopo capital, was played out on the lushly-grassed pitch of one of SA's most underutilised 2010 World Cup venues.

The surface offered the hopes of attractive football. The characteristic Rustenburg heat; a Chiefs battling to find their rhythm in the new, young regime; and a game Gallants who worked hard to match their traditionally more illustrious opponents seemed factors that combined for a more sluggish affair.

In North West province afternoon heat that necessitated a first-half water-break Chiefs came out on the front foot and had right midfielder Kgaogela Sekgota through on a one-on-one to force a save from Gallants goalkeeper Ismail Watenga.

The home side, though, opened the scoring through a goal where Chiefs' covering of spaces was exposed.

Mahlatse Makudubela started and finished the movement. The winger produced a piece of skill on the right then fed inside and set off on a run that was not well tracked by the Amakhosi defence. Collecting the return through-pass, he beat centreback Kwinika and slotted past Itumeleng Khune.

Chiefs laboured in the heat. Soon after the water-break Amakhosi battled to penetrate with combinations through the middle as Ashley du Preez latched onto the loose ball and rolled a strike from the edge of the area past the right upright.

Amakhosi piled on the pressure and camped in Gallants' half after the break. But they were unable to find a way through, under, round or over the Limpopo team's parked bus.

With the clock winding down finally Chiefs broke Gallants' resistance from a training ground set-piece.

Former Bafana Bafana left-back Sifiso Hlanti knows how to swerve in a free-kick, and did so with a dangerous, well-placed delivery from the left of the area that was just above the heads of Gallant's defence and low enough to collect the flick-on in the middle, Kwinika burying the header at the far post.

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