Modern football is a game of small margins. The difference between success and the dreaded F word, failure, can be decided by centimetres.
Soccer success always was decided in inches, but in the era of analysis and science the margins have narrowed. That’s why the richest clubs now have armies of technicians, each team trying to ensure if they don’t have the jump on the others possessing a technical aspect that can give them the advantage, they are at least not behind anyone else and disadvantaged. It costs millions, if not hundreds of millions, to keep up with the football Joneses.
You could argue it was the small margins that saw a rebuilt Orlando Pirates win the MTN8 and notch a much-needed second trophy in three years — lifting their strike rate for silverware after six seasons without any — while a restructuring Kaizer Chiefs bombed out in the semifinals.
Pirates swept SA football’s trophy machine of the better part of a decade, Mamelodi Sundowns, aside 4-1 on aggregate in their semifinal. Promising Spanish coach Jose Riveiro’s tactics against a superior combination were impressive, and when Bucs had opportunities, they had the explosiveness in player power to make them count. Pirates’ organisation and explosiveness provided by individual players of quality showed again as they edged a tense final 1-0 against AmaZulu thanks to red-hot Monnapule Saleng’s superb free-kick from an impossible angle.
Chiefs could not capitalise on Brandon Truter’s solid but unspectacular AmaZulu being reduced to 10 men in the 54th minute at FNB Stadium in the first leg of their semifinal and settled for a 1-1 draw that proved decisive in the tie. After they could not breach Usuthu in the 0-0 second leg in Durban, allowing AmaZulu to progress on away goals, Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane complained of his team’s lack of explosiveness in the final third.
There was another aspect of the tie that raised questions on the overall quality of the combination put together by the new-look Chiefs brains trust of Zwane, sporting director Kaizer Motaung Jr and technical head Molefi Ntseki. Amakhosi conceded early in the first leg for a staggering sixth time in 13 league and cup games to that point, coming out all over the place at the start of the game.
Pirates and arch-rivals Chiefs have their issues. In the era of Sundowns’ awe-inspiring dominance, where Patrice Motsepe’s wallet has turned the environment on its head over the past two decades, times have been tough for both. And it’s not that one of Chiefs or Pirates has reacted better. Both have floundered at various stages.
Amakhosi have plunged their funds into their world-class village in Naturena, with its training, medical and technical facilities and improving academy. One would imagine such a solid investment will preserve Chiefs as a Southern African institution for decades, solidifying the platform provided by their monstrous support base. While doing this Chiefs lost their way in making quality signings — something a big three club in any country has to do.
Pirates, unlike their big three competitors, still do not have a training facility. Bucs’ convoluted back room staff and their questionable role in appointments of coaches, signings and even team selections make success a hit-and-miss undertaking. But one positive aspect of a hit-and-miss approach is that — like a broken clock that is right twice a day — there at least will be some hits. For every Kjell Jonevret there can also be a Riveiro.
While Bucs’ lack of ambition establishing off-field facilities has been mocked by supporters of Chiefs, Pirates fans could make the famous sporting retort: look at the trophy cabinet.
Pirates are also buckling under the strain of Sundowns’ financial pressure and the team from Chloorkop vacuuming up the best players, sometimes seemingly just to keep them from their opposition. But Bucs have at least not let their guard down in one key aspect for a big club — ambition in signings and coaching appointments.
Milutin Sredojevic might not have won a trophy, but was unfortunate not to. He was rehired at Bucs for a reason — the Serb had grown immensely in pedigree in African football since his first stint at Pirates as a young coach in the 2000s. Josef Zinnbauer had coached in the Bundesliga, and it said something of his reputation globally that on leaving Bucs he joined a decent European club in Russia’s Lokomotiv Moscow.
Pirates make big signings and do not fall too short of matching Sundowns in almost every transfer window. Chiefs go multiple transfer windows making sub-par acquisitions, and when those don’t succeed make sweeping clear-outs and go on buying sprees. But even in those sprees the quality of what is bought raises questions.
So it’s not to denigrate in any way the rebuilding task coach Zwane has strived for. That his team fought back in all six of the games mentioned above where they conceded first is also a stunning statistic. So there is something to the combination.
It is just that it doesn’t seem to have been enough. It’s certainly not enough for a big side seeking to end a seven-season trophy drought. A team where the pressure of the scale of the club, and how unprecedented such a barren spell is, given Amakhosi previously went one season without a trophy before this drought, ramps up the stakes.
Zwane’s effort to sign creative players, to play expressive football, to restore the beautiful style of play, the brand was associated with before sports teams started referring to themselves as brands, must be applauded. A succession of unambitious, results-orientated coaching appointments had brought neither results nor attractive football.
But the project — and one has to be sceptical that Zwane made the final decisions on this — stopped short of where it needed to go. If Chiefs’ promising, mostly youthful signings had been accompanied by a few headline, explosive players — proven performers like the Salengs, Deon Hottos, Olisa Ndahs, Ndabayithethwa Ndlondlos and Kermit Erasmuses Pirates have signed in the last three years — Zwane would have a combination capable of winning silverware.
At Chiefs it just seems to have also become an institutionalised methodology to penny-pinch and lack ambition assembling a squad. It’s why, even though last week’s league Soweto derby ended 1-0 to Chiefs, the trophy cabinet scoreboard in eight seasons now with their bitter rivals reads 2-0 to Pirates.
Big clubs need good facilities. But big clubs also have to make big signings.
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