South Africa’s new Premier Soccer League kicked off last week with results — on and off the field — – not living up to expectations
SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi
ROUND two of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) comes up this weekend with clubs hoping for more goals and spectators and fewer red cards and armed robberies.
Yes, just when you thought the sports pages were a safe haven from the crime engulfing the country, along comes an armed gang to relieve Manning Rangers of more than R7 000 in gate receipts at Chatsworth Stadium. To make matters worse for the Durban club, while they were losing the takings from a derby against Amazulu off the field, the team were going down 2-0 to their fiercest rivals on it. Italian fans may be used to nine matches producing a miserly 11 goals, but action-loving South African audiences expect the net to bulge with far greater frequency.
Talking of audiences, where were all the fans last weekend? About 15 000 watched a Coca-Cola Challenge Cup encounter between Rangers and Amazulu, but less than half that number turned up for the real thing (no pun intended).
An even bigger shock awaited Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs, Moroka Swallows and Jomo Cosmos at FNB Stadium, where only 35 000 turned up for an attractive double-header.
Let me to hasten to add that the figures from Port Elizabeth, Pietersburg and Bloemfontein were more encouraging, although those who tried to attack Celtic coach Stanley Phiri clearly do not belong at such a civilised gathering.
Manny Rodrigues (Cape Town Spurs), Samkelo Jam Jam (Jomo Cosmos) and Pollen Ndlanya (Kaizer Chiefs) were the red-card offenders with Rodrigues’s first dismissal also being the first of the PSL. Given all the hype surrounding the launch of the league (“The greatest event in South African soccer history” deserved a red card of its own for going over the top), it was entirely natural that events could backfire. One suspects that PSL chief executive officer Trevor Phillips, the Englishman imported to get the show on the road at a salary varying from R40 000 to R80 000 a month depending on whom you read, is simply relieved that the show is now on the road.
The vehicle certainly needs considerable fine tuning, but that should come as no surprise, given that the engineer had only two weeks to build it. The weekend programme begins in Cape Town on Friday night with Hellenic hosting Real Rovers, who snatched a late home victory over Sundowns through another goal from consistent scorer George Mathiba. Normally poor travellers, Rovers held Chiefs and Pirates in Johannesburg lately and pipped Hellenic by the odd goal in seven at Greenpoint Stadium when they clashed in the pre-season Challenge Cup. Colin Gie, coach of the Greek Gods, would have preferred the match on the wider Athlone Stadium surface as his young team try to build on a goalless deadlock with neighbours Spurs.
Pick of the three Saturday matches is the Wits- Pirates showdown at Rand Stadium, which The Students wisely moved from compact Milpark to cater for an expected large crowd.
A solitary goal from Jerry Sikosana separated these teams in the Challenge Cup, and Wits will be quietly confident of exacting revenge, having held Moroka Swallows and Vaal Professionals goalless in enemy territory. The Buccaneers are suffering from understandable tiredness triggered by too many matches in too little time and the problem of poor finishing can only be exacerbated by the lengthy loss through injury of recent signing Gerald Stober.
If Milpark was too small for Pirates, it was big enough for Swallows, who had to move their fixture against Rangers because Ellis Park is being prepared for the South Africa-All Blacks rugby Test. Sorry to be such a nuisance to you good PSL officials, but considering the rugby date was known months ago, was it necessary to pencil in Ellis Park at all?
Both clubs are licking their wounds following first- round defeats, so a lively tussle is predicted between teams capable of playing excellent passing games.
Supersport United were forced to postpone their debut at Pretoria Technikon due to campus unrest, so it is off to Odi Stadium for a match against off- the-boil Cape Town Spurs.
Not that the boys sponsored by the channel of champions can afford to be complacent as they had the better of exchanges with the Eagles in a previous encounter this year only to fall in the final minute. Chiefs may have been unimpressive winners over Cosmos through a late goal from Thabang Lebese, but who remembers how the three points were won when the season ends?
Opponents Celtic come to Johannesburg Stadium on Sunday seeking to recapture the form which propelled them to fourth place on the final Challenge Cup standings.
Home losses to Sundowns and QwaQwa Stars were compounded by the midweek resignation of Zambian Phiri after police had to save him from hot heads at Clive Solomon Stadium.
QwaQwa Stars and Bush Bucks will be seeking third consecutive victories when they meet at Phuthaditjhaba, the soccer venue that can get your tongue twisted very quickly.
Goal-shy outfits Sundowns and Vaal Professionals seek a better return on investments at Odi Stadium and in Port Elizabeth, pre-season relegation favourites Michau Warriors and Witbank Aces clash. Amazulu, the only club to manage a victory by more than one goal in the opening round, host Cosmos, an outfit whose emphasis on youth is matched only by its unpredictability.
Premier Soccer League
Friday – Hellenic v Real Rovers, Greenpoint Stadium 8pm Saturday – Wits v Orlando Pirates, Rand Stadium; Supersport United v Cape Town Spurs, Odi Stadium; Moroka Swallows v Manning Rangers, Milpark 8pm Sunday – Kaizer Chiefs v Bloemfontein Celtic, Johannesburg Stadium; Mamelodi Sundowns v Vaal Professionals, Odi Stadium; QwaQwa Stars v Bush Bucks, Charles Mopeli Stadium; Amazulu v Jomo Cosmos, King’s Park rugby stadium; Michau Warriors v Witbank Aces, Boet Erasmus Matches kickoff at 3pm unless otherwise stated