Innehållsförteckning för February 2022 från Kick Off

Just a single goal into the New Year from three of the foreign strikers employed to find the back of the net at Kaizer Chiefs doesn’t provide the kind of confidence needed for a club that hasn’t won a trophy for a very long time. These are the facts facing Serbian forward Samir Nurkovic, Colombian striker Leonardo Castro and Zambian hitman Lazarous Kambole ahead of the expiry of their contracts at the end of June. From the highs of his first season, when he reached double numbers and persuaded the club to offer him an improved deal, Nurkovic has no goals this term from the five appearances he managed before an injury that required surgery. Castro started off the campaign needing medical attention and had not given the club any…

KICK OFF: How have you found the season so far? Thamsanqa Gabuza: So far, so good. The season is going well for us and I am starting to score goals. In the first round, it was not bad because I had six goals. The team has been doing well. It’s just that we got derailed by COVID-19 infections in December. A number of our key players were unavailable. We don’t have a lot of players as it’s a small squad. It’s not easy. But we have a number of youngsters from the DDC [DStv Diski Challenge]. It’s a chance for them to show what they have. By PSL standards, six goals in the first half is not bad. So how important is it for you to continue scoring goals? I…

Three points for a win introduced When KICK OFF was launched in February 1994, teams in the South African league still earned two points for a win and one for a draw. England was the first nation to award three points for a win in their domestic league all the way back in 1981, but it is fair to say it did not catch on around the world. The idea is that teams will be more attacking and take more chances if they can get three points for a victory versus one for a draw. That reasoning is sound and probably has resulted better viewing for fans. A few countries followed suit after England, but it wasn’t until FIFA introduced it at the 1994 World Cup in the United States…

SECTION 1 Mamelodi Sundowns There will be plenty of familiar faces for Mamelodi Sundowns when they start their CAF Champions League group stage campaign, not least a reunion with former coach Pitso Mosimane, who has won two titles in a row with Al Ahly. There will also be two trips to Sudan to face Al Hilal and Al Merrikh, but Sundowns also have some recent history there two. Those matches may yet be played in neutral territory if the Confederation of African Football bar the pair from hosting matches at their stadia due to the poor level of facilities. Al Ahly (Egypt) A club that will certainly need no introduction and a team Sundowns have faced with some regularity in the past few seasons, not least in 2020/21 when the…

Quality of our league Once upon a time we had 18 teams in our top league. Orlando Pirates went on to win what is today known as the CAF Champions league in 1995 after FIFA readmitted South Africa to international football. Bafana Bafana went on to lift the Africa Cup of Nations the following year. Our teams were producing top quality players in abundance. We had players in all the major leagues in Europe – Italy, Greece, Germany, Spain, England, Turkey, etc. Then we decided that we needed more cup football. When we were confronted with fixture congestion, we dropped the number of clubs to 16 in the top tier league and increase the number of foreign-born players who could be fielded by one team at a time from three…

Where Pirates came from and how they got their name It was at the suggestion of goalkeeper James ‘Hitler’Sobi that the team took the name Pirates, and the colours and crest of skull and crossbones that exist today have their origins from the 1940 movie ‘Sea Hawk’. It was the blockbuster of its time, starring matinee idol Errol Flynn and earning four Oscar nominations. The members of the Orlando Boys Club were captivated, like audiences worldwide. The genesis of Pirates was a collection of schoolboys who came together to form a team under the auspices of the Orlando Boys Club. It was place where teenagers from schools across the burgeoning Soweto came together to play table tennis, lift weights and box. But they did not have a football side and…

KICK OFF: How did you feel when FIFA rejected South Africa’s protest after that controversial loss to Ghana in the World Cup qualifiers? Danny Jordaan: Well, of course we think that they [FIFA] did not do the thorough job they were supposed to do. We placed before them certain matters that they were supposed to investigate. But, clearly, they didn’t, and the only thing not to get to that stage of the investigation is to close it, and that’s what they did. SAFA has written to FIFA to request full details of the rejection. Will you drop the matter or pursue it further? The allegations clearly require an investigation, just as they did in the Senegal vs South Africa match when allegations of match fixing and match manipulation by the…

Red Bull Salzburg v Bayern Munich Perennial title-contenders Bayern Munich made light work of the group stage after topping a pool that included Barcelona, Benfica, and Dynamo Kiev. The reigning Bundesliga champions scored a competition-high 22 goals en route to qualification to further solidify their status as one of the tournament favourites. Red Bull Salzburg stand between them and a spot in the next round after qualifying for the knockout stages for the first time in the club’s history. Despite losing the likes of Erling Haaland, Takumi Minamino and Dominik Szoboszlai in recent seasons, the Austrian outfit overcame the odds by progressing as runners-up to Lille in Group G. PLAYER TO WATCH: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) Widely regarded as the best striker in the world, 2019/20 Champions League top goalscorer…

The 2015 edition of the COSAFA Cup will remain the proudest moment for Namibian football as it marked their first and only international trophy as they lifted the regional competition against all odds. On that famous day for The Brave Warriors, their starting eleven was made up of players who were already playing in South Africa or would then go on to play in the neighbouring country, including Virgil Vries, Denzil Haoseb, Willem Mwedihanga, Chris Katjiukua, Ananias Gebhardt, Ronald Ketjijere, Petrus Shitembi, Deon Hotto, Benson Shilongo and Wangu Gome. Taking notes from the stands at the tournament held in the North West province had been Allan Freese as he plotted the way forward for Highlands Park. He found himself instantly attracted to the liveliness of a Namibian wearing jersey number…

1985 Dave Barber P6 W1 D1 L4 GF3 GA10 Sundowns had been up in the topflight of South African football for just two seasons, a reincarnation of the famous team from Marabastad. The Mamelodi version was owned by doctors Motsiri Itsweng and Bonny Sebotsane and they had won promotion in 1983, before narrowly avoiding relegation in their first season by two points. Dave Barber was in charge at the start of the new National Soccer League era but his tenure came to a swift end as they were struggling near the foot of the table. Barber was a player at Barnsley and Preston North End in England before coming to South Africa to play at Arcadia in 1964. He stayed and moved into coaching, passing away aged 66 in 2006.…

Originally scheduled to take place in China between June and July 2021, plans to hold an extended, 24-team FIFA Club World Cup were put on the backburner for the latest instalment of the competition due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, the United Arab Emirates have stepped in as hosts for FIFA’s showpiece club competition and will welcome some of the biggest teams in the world to their shores from February 3-12. Representatives from each of the six confederations around the world – namely Chelsea (UEFA), Palmeiras (CONMEBOL), Al-Hilal (AFC), Al Ahly (CAF), Monterrey (CONCACAF) and AS Pirae (OFC), as well as Al Jazira, champions from the host nation, make up the numbers for this year’s tournament and will all be looking to get their hands on the prestigious piece…