Andrew Muchineripi Soccer
Those good people who occupy the houses around Minolta Loftus in a beautiful, tree-lined Pretoria suburb are accustomed to the blue banners of the Blue Bulls and the smell of braaied boerewors.
Come noon on Sunday the streets around the citadel of Pretoria rugby are in for a cultural shock as thousands of Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs supporters descend on a stadium that ranks among the best in the land.
Boerewors will be less in evidence than fried chicken and chops and pap, the suburb will be awash with black and gold and green and blue flags as Loftus is packed for a domestic calendar highlight.
A clash between Sundowns (who now share Loftus with the Bulls after growing tired of minuscule crowds at Odi Stadium in Mabopane township) and Chiefs ranks second only to the ultimate football “fix”, namely Chiefs versus Pirates.
The clubs have identical Castle Premiership records of two wins, two draws and one loss entering round six of the marathon 34-match programme in the richest national championship on the continent.
Both teams came unstuck in the second round with Chiefs losing 2-1 at Bloemfontein Celtic, while Sundowns crashed 4-0 to Pretoria neighbours SuperSport United in their first match at Loftus.
While Celtic are always awkward customers in the Free State capital, the scale of the destruction inflicted on Sundowns came like a thunderbolt from the blue for success-spoilt supporters of the Brazilians.
So stunned were those wearing green and blue that they milled around the bench, where coach Ted Dumitru, his technical team and the substitutes were seated, and hurled abuse at them.
Any doubts this humble observer had that the fine line between sanity and stupidity is positively anorexic when it comes to South African soccer supporters was confirmed that cloudy and cool Saturday afternoon. Sundowns had just completed the most difficult domestic achievement of winning the double (Premiership and Bob Save Super Bowl) and they reached the Rothmans Cup final against Chiefs for good measure.
Fortunately, the only abuse was verbal, but judged by the intellectual capacity of some Sundowns fans, nothing less than the capture of the three senior trophies this season will suffice.
Chiefs fans are no angels either, making life miserable at King’s Park rugby stadium a few weeks ago for an assistant referee whose only “crime” was to correctly call a series of marginal offside decisions.
I mention these incidents in the hope that Premier Soccer League security chief David Thidiela and his “knobkerrie brigade” are wide awake to the potential for trouble this weekend.
Let me hasten to add that the number of local soccer matches afflicted by violence has been dramatically reduced with the Thidiela army nipping many potential problems in the bud.
Predicting clashes between Sundowns and Chiefs is well-nigh impossible, given the intensity of the rivalry between squads with strength in depth, experienced players and potential match-winners.
Mention match-winners and one tall, physically imposing Nigerian immediately springs to mind. Goal scorer extraordinare Raphael Chukwu needs no introduction to regular readers and is the reigning Footballer of the Year.
It was Chukwu who scored against Chiefs in the Rothmans Cup final and again in the replay and there will be a spontaneous buzz of anticipation on Sunday each time the ball comes close to his white boots.
Another imported footballer capable of stamping his authority on proceedings is Roger Feutmba, the Sundowns midfielder with a left foot that rarely fails to find its target, and Chiefs can ill afford to give him time or space.
Sundowns are less convincing at the back with SuperSport causing havoc by using three strikers who attacked their opponents deep in enemy territory and severely disrupted the flow of quality possession. Chiefs must hope that they have finally solved their scoring problem with the return from Turkey of former stars Fani Madida and Pollen Ndlanya and both were on target against QwaQwa Stars last Sunday.
Ndlanya shares with Chukwu the record of being the only players to score four goals in a Premiership game. Ndlanya did so against Witbank Aces in the inaugural 1996-97 season and Chukwu equalled the feat against Wits last season.
Chiefs hold a distinct edge over their rivals between the posts with the blond bombshell, Brian Baloyi, having no serious rivals within South Africa while Sundowns alternate between modest Ronnie Kanalelo and John Tlale.
A low-scoring draw is probably the most likely result after four of the five clashes between the teams last season ended in stalemate. And if goals arrive, expect Chukwu and Ndlanya to be the creators or executioners.