As the race for league honours enters the final straight Orlando Pirates look like they have too much to do and Sundowns and Cape Town Spurs are battling it out in the lead
Soccer: Lungile Madywabe
WHILE a Jackpot or a Pick Six carry-over is always received with sighs of disbelief by punters, soccer followers have become so used to the postponements of fixtures that it rarely surprises them.
The bringing forward of the Orlando Pirates-Qwa-Qwa Stars game from November 8 to last Wednesday only to be rescheduled to a later unknown date — because of the political rally due at Charles Mopedi stadium–is the latest confusing debacle from the National Soccer League.
While this delay may come as a reprieve to a jaded and bruised Bucs team, their exemplary campaign in the Africa Champions Cup has left them with a fixture backlog which is sure to pile up further since they are leaving next week for their return match against Express of Uganda.
But when the Pirates public relations officer S’kumbuzo Mthembu declares, “It is not of our making and we have in the past played three games in a space of eight days which led us to lose points unnecessary, but we will do our best to defend our title,” it shows how unenthusiastically the news was received by the team.
It still remains to be seen whether the November 15 closing date for the league activities will be met. The Four Nations tournament — which includes Egypt, Zambia, Nigeria and hosts South Africa — begins one week after the closing date. It will be played on the round robin system with the team with the most points winning. Pretoria, Bophuthatswana and the new Johannesburg athletics stadium are the three venues to be used for the tournament.
Meanwhile, in the chase for the league title coach Clemens Westerhoff is trying to deliver on the promise he made when he joined Sundowns earlier this year. He said they will win the league and go on to win the Africa Champions Cup next year. Cape Town Spurs are looking to become the first team from the Cape to win a league and Bob Save Super Bowl double.
Currently leading the second placed Sundowns by three points but having played one game more, Spurs have to their advantage two home fixtures, one against their fellow Capetonians Hellenic and they host Qwa-Qwa Stars on Sunday afternoon. Lucky to have had all three points in their game against AmaZulu last week in Durban, Spurs must make sure they win all their remaining games if they want the title to be Cape Town bound.
Spurs’ toughest test would be their second-last away match against Pirates at the FNB stadium on November 4. Sundowns’ PRO Alex Shakoane as usual sounded very confident that they will win the league saying, “our boys are in training at this early hour of the day just to make sure they can have the endurance to take us through the last four games”.
Kaizer Chiefs’ woes continue as their hopes of salvaging anything this season rest on how they perform in the semi-finals of the BoB Save Super Bowl against Spurs next weekend. The outside chance they had in the league was dashed when they drew successively with Cosmos and Real Rovers.
In the other semi-final, Stars tackle second division Pretoria City. It is the first time that a second division team has survived through to the semis of this competition.
Chiefs’ last two games were marred by shooting which led to the death of a spectator in their last game against Rovers. The NSL chief of security David Thidiela said: “Our job is made difficult by the fact that most of the stadiums don’t have a concrete wall around them which makes it easier for the fans to pass dangerous weapons like guns to each other through the fence.”
While bets are still open on who will eventually be crowned 1995 champions, the berths for the top eight look comfortably filled. Bush Bucks need three points from their last two home games to make sure that they campaign in the BP Top Eight competition next year.
The battle to stay on in the elite league seems to be of academic interest with Rabali Blackpool, who had six points deducted for using wrongfully registered players, certain to fight it out in the second division next season. African Wanderers’ fate depends largely on what happens to Witbank Aces and Moroka Swallows’ last three and four games respectively, and whether they win their last two games which will give them 35 points — enough to survive should the two latter teams fail to win their games.
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