Tabla de contenidos para June 2022 en Kick Off

At 27, when his life was cut short, Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa was in his prime, donning the number one jersey for both club and country. That Meyiwa had the honour of captaining both Pirates and Bafana Bafana speaks volumes about the ascendancy of his career. “He was not only a good goalkeeper but he was also a character. I think those are the qualities that are missing in our football today,” former Pirates coach Roger De Sa says. “He certainly was a character. Small in stature, yet he reached such big heights as a goalkeeper. My time with him at Pirates was very special. That’s when he really broke through and made the number one spot his own, before getting into the national team. “Unfortunately we lost him,…

Barring any boardroom shenanigans before the start of next season, Jomo Cosmos will be lost to the professional ranks in South African football following their relegation from the GladAfrica Championship at the end of the 2021-22 campaign. It is the culmination of years of decay at a club that was once among the best in the country, but has failed to keep up with the times and adapt to the modern football world. There should be no-one who celebrates their demise though, for many years following their formation, when Sono purchased the top-flight status of Highlands Park in 1983, they were a leading sign of South African football excellence. From the beginning, it was a business that churned out top talent, but also won trophies. That is until the football…

KICK OFF: The 1980s Kaizer Chiefs squads were considered the best, what was so special about them? Howard Freese: Chiefs was not a united team, even when I was there. Let me tell you a secret, the 1985 to 1990 teams were divided but, you could not touch us when we were together. We were very good as a team; we respected each other’s private times. We never socialised together. I would put on my jacket and head this way. Ace Ntsoelengoe would go his own way. But when we got together and we camped, no one could touch us! There was unbelievable spirit in us. We trusted each other in the team. Of course, now and then we would obviously have ups and downs, and have a go at…

KICK OFF: Out of the many clubs that you played for, where did you enjoy your football the most? Emile Baron: I will have to say Lillestrom in Norway. That’s specifically where I got more experience. I learnt a lot of what I know there. I was still young at that time, and everything was brand new to me. You were a key member of that Under-23 team coached by Shakes Mashaba. That class of 2000 was a golden generation with the likes of Benni McCarthy, Delron Buckley, Quinton Fortune, Matthew Booth, Abram Nteo, Steve Lekoelea, Siyabonga Nomvethe and others … You know that was one of the best teams I’ve ever been with. They should have roped most of us into the Bafana Bafana team, but they didn’t. I…

KICK OFF: Neo, congratulations for winning the league title in your first season at Mamelodi Sundowns. How does is it feel? Neo Maema: It’s a great feeling to win the league with Sundowns, especially considering the fact that I have always wanted to win it. I’m very happy that I tasted my first title at Sundowns. I have no words and it’s a feeling that I cannot explain. With the amount of work that we have put in … we had targets to win the league and other cup competitions as well. I didn’t expect it to happen so soon but I’m happy it did. What were you aiming to achieve when you joined Sundowns because it’s not an easy side to break into considering the amount quality players around?…

Keagan Dolly (Kaizer Chiefs) Arrived from: Montpellier (France) It might not have been a great season for Kaizer Chiefs, but Dolly can hold his head up high having spent much of the campaign carrying the side in an attacking sense along with Khama Billiat. The 29-year-old has provided goals and assists, and at times looked a cut above the rest in the league. This despite joining the club having come off a long injury that kept him sidelined for large part of the previous campaign. From his very first game in the MTN8 quarterfinals against Mamelodi Sundowns, he had a commanding presence on the pitch. His form may have tailed off a bit towards the end of the season, but that could also have to do with playing in a…

KICK OFF: How did you fall in love with football? Washington Arubi: As a kid I used to love cricket, actually! I did a lot of sports growing up. Back then at school in Zimbabwe we did something every term. I used to run and do athletics, second term I would play soccer, but I was not that in love with the game. For me, cricket was everything and that is where I saw a career for myself. But in Grade 7 I used to be very shy and was a wicketkeeper and bowler in cricket. Then the schoolmaster said to me, ‘we think that as a wicketkeeper you can do well as a goalkeeper too’. Being so shy I did not argue. Over time, I had to admit that…

Morocco The north Africans swept through the recent World Cup qualifiers in imperious style and reached the finals in Qatar by beating the Democratic Republic of Congo convincingly over two legs in March’s playoff. But the success of entire campaign is clouded by their quarter-final exit, at the hands of Egypt, at the Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon in January, and the row between coach Vahid Halilhodzic and Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech, who has not played for Morocco for almost a year. Halilhodzic said after the tournament in Cameroon he had no plans to recall Ziyech but pressure for some sort of reconciliation has been building, particularly from Morocco Football Federation president Faouzi Lekjaa, a man not known to back down. Halilhodzic accused the Chelsea attacker of feigning injury to…

Benni deserved better To this day I still wonder what more Benni McCarthy could have done to keep his job at AmaZulu. I mean, this is a team he found languishing in the bottom half of the league table when he was appointed in December 2020. They went on to contend for the title and ultimately finished second, while recording the most points in their club’s history. That was enough to earn him the coveted honour of PSL Coach of the Year, which subsequently placed him on SAFA’s radar as the next Bafana Bafana gaffer. He further led AmaZulu to their inaugural continental participation in the CAF Champions League and got them to the group stages. So to be dismissed with just seven games remaining and being out of the top…

As a club which boasts a proud record of 93 trophies in 52 years, pre-dating the PSL era, Kaizer Chiefs’ lack of silverware in recent seasons has been a source of great consternation for the Amakhosi faithful. The club last added to their trophy cabinet during the 2014/15 campaign when a Stuart Baxter-led side won the MTN 8 and league double, adding to the Nedbank Cup and league titles they had won two seasons before. Baxter departed in 2015 and since his exit the Soweto giants have gone seven years without claiming any additional silverware. His successor, Steve Komphela, lasted just shy of three seasons without success before Giovanni Solinas took charge in a brief, yet ill-fated, spell. Ernst Middendorp then assumed control and narrowly missed out on the Nedbank…

Mamelodi Sundowns’ pursuit of their fifth consecutive league title never looked under threat from the day they opened the campaign against AmaZulu with a slender victory. So, it was no surprise that they wrapped up the title with another four games left to spare, pushing their total number of titles wins in the PSL era up to a dozen and widening the gap between themselves and their rivals Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates to a massive eight. The fact that the latest championship was won at a pedestrian pace is telling no-one else in the league, including the famed Soweto duo, put up any sustained challenge. Nine games into the campaign Sundowns already sat comfortable at the top with eight wins and one draw, remaining unbeaten until round 18 when…

1 Goalkeeper: Calvin Marlin I played with Calvin at SuperSport United, and he helped us a lot because we reached six cup finals in a row. He was a good communicator – Calvin was simply the best. 2 Rightback: Phil Evans I played with Phil Evans at Supersport United, and he is one of the most underrated players I have ever played with. He was great at defending but also a great crosser of the baller. 3 Leftback: Ricardo Katza Ricardo was our captain when I was at SuperSport – he was always decisive on penalties. He was young but always showed leadership skills and was a good tackler. He was not strong going forward but the way he communicated was very impressive. 4 Centerback: Aaron Mokoena I played with…

KICK OFF: What are your thoughts on your time at AmaZulu? Benni McCarthy: Amazing, it was an amazing time and experience. I had the best technical team that you could ask for. We just had the best working mentality and we wanted to succeed. I think, in my opinion, we succeeded and over exceeded. Unfortunately, that became our biggest downfall because we over exceeded in such a small time with no support. We didn’t bring one player in; we didn’t go into the transfer market. We just got our heads down and did exceptionally well and we turned that into gold. Of course, we were bound to fail and I will not say fail because to me when you are seventh in the league and you still got plenty to…

Growing up in the township of Jouberton, just outside Klerksdorp, Dino Ndlovu’s upbringing was by his own definition a normal one, but it offered little promise of the extraordinary fame and fortune he would attain throughout his career. Having started playing on the “dusty streets” around his neighbourhood, today the 32-year-old is a full South Africa international and one of the nation’s most well-traveled exports. “I had a normal childhood,” Ndlovu offers. “I didn’t have a difficult upbringing. Maybe it was difficult, but I didn’t realise it at the time because I was just a kid who liked playing football in the street.” His talents were obvious from a young age, and he was quickly plucked from those streets by a local club called Dona Young Stars. From there, he…

I always go on the internet to check the latest news and I see that everyone is talking about how Arthur Zwane must be given a chance to be the top man at Naturena. I don’t see any problem with Arthur being given a chance, but he needs to be supported. No coach was born with experience; coaches get experience by doing the job, you gain experience because you play matches. Look at the Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rhulani Mokwena, he was not even a player, he was an assistant coach and when Pitso Mosimane left, he took over along with Manqoba Mngqithi. And today he is doing a great job because they’ve won the league. Granted, the Sundowns situation is different because he has two other coaches next to him,…