Kick Off October 2020

When Kaizer Chiefs were enjoying their great start to the new season, it was difficult to see them dropping the ball and losing the title at the end of the campaign. The last time that happened was in 1987 when they needed just a draw from the remaining three matches of the season, only to lose all of them and surrender the title to eventual winners Jomo Cosmos. It was difficult to see a repeat of that though and most people – myself included – got that absolutely wrong. It just shows how unpredictable football can be. The last 35 minutes of the match against Baroka FC, the league trophy was on its way to Naturena, only for Manuel Kambala to get that equaliser which turned the tables around. Chiefs…

To air your views, email your letters to forum@kickoff.com The views expressed in the letters published do not reflect the views of KICK OFF magazine, its editor, publisher or CT Media Publications (Pty) Ltd. The editor reserves the right to edit and shorten letters. Letters shorter than 200 words will be given preference. Please note there are no prizes for star letters at this time. I’m disappointed with Chiefs I’m so disappointed, that Kaizer Chiefs players let the team down, it is the same mistakes every game. The coaches have tried their best, chopping and changing players, but with no results. The players of Chiefs must know they had to deliver. Only two or three players were on top form, the rest were not up to task. The new season…

GOOD MONTH FOR… MAMELODI SUNDOWNS Two more trophies under their belt in the space of just a week and an historic ‘Treble’ for The Brazilians, who confirm their status as the team to beat in South Africa’s domestic competitions. Who can knock them off their perch? BAD MONTH FOR… KAIZER CHIEFS It was seemingly an Absa Premiership title in the bank, but Chiefs’ capitulation in the Gauteng bio-bubble was both spectacular and desperately disappointing for their longsuffering fans. The trophy wait goes on… ALSO LAST MONTH… • Kaizer Chiefs axe coach Ernst Middendorp and his assistant Shaun Bartlett days after they are pipped to the Absa Premiership title by Mamelodi Sundowns. • Polokwane City part ways with coach Clinton Larsen after they are relegated to the GladAfrica Championship. • Swallows…

KICK OFF: You are the first coach in South African football history to win five league titles. Often we don’t celebrate individual achievements enough in this country, but you must be proud? Pitso Mosimane: I am humbled, thankyou. But nobody achieves these things alone without the help of other people. Of course my job is to create a map of where a trophy is, make a plan for how we think we should go get it and navigate the players as if they are on a treasure hunt. But the players do the work, we [coaches] don’t play football, we guide. So I must give credit to the players and their families, who have been patient with us. We had our own bubble [for a month] at Royal Marang in…

“THE POWER OF THE PLAYERS WILL BE MORE THAN YOURS BECAUSE THEY CAN GANG UP ON YOU.” After Kaizer Chiefs blew a 13-point lead to allow Mamelodi Sundowns to claim the 2019-20 Absa Premiership title, there has been plenty of soul searching at Naturena. It was a season where Amakhosi had hoped their unprecedented five-year trophy drought would eventually come to an end as they celebrated their 50th anniversary. By Christmas they were in cruise control with 34 points after 11 wins, one draw and just a single defeat, which prompted discussions about ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ they would lift the league. But into the New Year, they lost three times before the COVID-19 pandemic brought domestic football to a halt. After the resumption of the campaign, which was played…

Mamelodi Sundowns’ 59 points title win last term was the eighth time since the PSL became a 16-team league at the beginning of the 2002/03 season that less than 60 points have been needed to win the league. Sundowns won with 57 points in the 2005/06 season and two years later SuperSport United needed just 54 points to lift the first of their three league titles in a row. Matsatsantsa won all three with under 60 points as they garnered their second with 55 before sealing their third with a total of 57. Then in the 2011/12 season Orlando Pirates’ triumph was earned with 58 points before Kaizer Chiefs won it with 57 the following campaign. In the last season that Sundowns have been champions a similar total of 59…