BY BARENG-BATHO KORTJAAS:
The year 2017 marks 20 years since SuperSport bought the status of Pretoria City and renamed it SuperSport United in 1997. Since then the club, under a catalogue oftop local coaches including Pitso Mosimane and Gavin Hunt, have collected a boutique of 11 domestic trophies.
Current coach Eric Tinkler added the 11th piece of sterling — the MTN8 Cup — in hisshort four-month stint with the club. But all the combined silverware stored inMatsatsantsa a Pitori’s cabinet pale into insignificance in comparison to the Caf Confederation Cup.
This, after all, is Africa’s secondary club football competition and United stand at the gates of glory as they begin the pursuit of a maiden continental crown. Tinkler ’s touch of history. The chase begins today when Matsatsantsa meet TP Mazembe in the first leg of the 14th instalment of the competition at Stade TP Mazembe at 3.30pm in Lubumbashi.
The second leg is on November 25 at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville. The occasion sees Tinkler enter his name into the annals of history as he becomes thefirst South African coach to reach two Confederation Cup finals with two differentclubs.
United will lean on Tinkler’s knowledge of the lay of the land on African travels. It was in Tinkler’s experience SuperSport players relied on to keep their composure when confronted with lasers, flares and fireworks in the semifinal against Club Africain in Tunisia. Though they have been consistent on the cup competition front, they haven’tfinished in the top three in the Premier Soccer League since 2012.
Club chairman Khulu Sibiya and CEO Stan Matthews would appreciate a continental titleto add a wonderful feather in the club’s cap. Can Tinkler be trusted to deliver? He works hard on individual players and the team collective.
The work he does off the field, including his match reports, analysis of opposition and his own team is impressive. He booked a four-day camp to train on an artificial pitch in Rustenburg upon learning that they would play Mazembe in the final.
An Astro-turf awaits them at the 18 000 capacity stadium. He lacks not an appetite forbig moments — this is his fourth final as head coach, with two wins and one loss.Tinkler is a calm coach and one hopes for his sake that this will be the first step towards third-time lucky for the man from Roodepoort to put down something that willbe in the history books of the club.
It will be a third encounter between the two teams after locking horns in the groupstages, Matsatsantsa staging a credible come-from-behind 2-2 draw away and holdingMazembe goalless in Atteridgeville.
BY SAZI HADEBE: 
Kaitano Tembo has quietly played a remarkable role in bringing SuperSport United to the cusp of history while remaining humble enough to allow everyone else in the team a chance to grab the headlines.
The former Zimbabwe international and the second-in-command to head coach EricTinkler played an instrumental role in the middle of SuperSport’s Confederation Cupcampaign. Tembo was given the task of guiding the team in the absence of the club’sformer head coach, Stuart Baxter.
Two of the Group B matches Tembo was in charge of were an away (June 4) and home(June 20) clashes against TP Mazembe — the same Democratic Republic of Congo giantsSuperSport meet in today’s first leg of the competition ’s final in Lubumbashi.
Critical qualifying points “I remember those two matches against Mazembe and the two precious points we gained against them,” said Tembo this week as they were preparing to board a plane on Friday morning. “The two points were critical in us qualifyingfor the quarterfinals.”
SuperSport’s Under-23 internationals, Teboho Mokoena (21) and Aubrey Modiba (23), got the goals that shocked Mazembe when they were held 2-2 before the secondleg in Pretoria ended in a goalless draw.
“I’m so glad that the players had that experience in Lubumbashi early on in the competition, ” said Tembo. “It gives us a huge heads-up going into the first leg of the final. “The two teams know each other, so there will be no secrets there.”
The only major concern for Tembo going into this match has been their preparations,which were thrown into disarray because of the Fifa international break. SuperSport hadfive players in Bafana Bafana and striker Jeremy Brockie in the New Zealand team.“It wasn’t the ideal way to prepare for a game of this magnitude minus six of yourkey players,” he said.
“The only consolation is that this presents an opportunity for the young and fringeplayers to stake their claim, although ideally you want your best 11 to start in the final.”
Tembo mentioned injuries to Mokoena and Thabo Mnyamane and the suspension ofReneilwe Letsholonyane and Morgan Gould, as a handicap for them going into the final. “But we don’t have to dwell on the negative because we’ve gone this far. We have to go all the way and win it and the players know what is at stake at the moment.”
Tembo said a goal or two would be vital to day. “It is also important we don’t concede a goal. That will give us a massive advantage when we host the second leg at home [atLucas Moripe Stadium next Saturday).”
BY SAZI HADEBE:
Jeremy Brockie (30) has been such a critical figure in SuperSport United’s march to the final of the CAF Confederation Cup that a team without him is unimaginable.
Such has been the New Zealander’s influence that SuperSport did all they could to getBrockie on a plane to Lubumbashi on Friday even though he had landed a few hours earlier in South Africa after a gruelling trip to Peru where his national side played a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday.
Brockie arrived in Johannesburg with a broken heart on Friday morning as he couldn ’t help New Zealand earn a place in 32 teams that will compete in the 2018 Fifa World Cup.
New Zealand suffered a devastating 2-0 defeat in Lima against the SouthAmericans. As SuperSport play title-holders TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi this afternoon,South African hopes will be on Brockie, who is the leading scorer with 10 goals in thisyear ’s competition.
Brockie ’s goals include a hat-trick he scored against Liberian side Barrack YoungControllers in the early stages of the competition. Brockie is four goals ahead of his nearest rivals, including Ben Malango of Mazembe and teammate Thabo Mnyamane, who will miss the first leg today because of injury. “When I joined SuperSport, one of mygoals was to play in a CAF club competition,” the striker told AFP early this week.
“I havewonderful memories from visiting countries in the east, west and north of Africa this year. “SuperSport have performed brilliantly to reach the final and now we face a very good team in Mazembe.” Before joining SuperSport in 2015 Brockie had played for clubs in New Zealand, Australia and Canada.
Brockie ’s scoring rate in the South African league saw him being the subject of speculation before the start of the current season as SuperSport’s neighbours, Mamelodi Sundowns, went public with their interest.
The story didn’t end there as Brockie himself asked the club if they could allow him tojoin Pitso Mosimane’s side, who were African Champions at the time. It was the intervention of SuperSport CEO Stan Matthews that put paid to those dreams as Matthews made it clear to all that their prized goal-scoring machine was going nowhere.
To his credit, Brockie has managed to refocused his energy to helping SuperSport win their first continental trophy. But it will be today where Brockie’s commitment to SuperSport will be further enhanced if he gets a goal or two after all the incredibletravelling he endured this week...