SOCCER: Rothman’s cup final, Sundowns vs Chiefs
Andrew Muchineripi
The safest bet before the Rothmans Cup final between holders Kaizer Chiefs and Sundowns at FNB Stadium on Saturday is that Amakhosi coach Paul Dolezar will take longer to choose his team than counterpart Ted Dumitru.
Suspensions rule defender Jacob Tshisevhe and wingback Lifa Gqosha out of the Amakhosi line-up and while Yugoslav Dolezar has plenty of reserves, making the correct choices is the tricky part.
It is at times like this that those of us who cram into taxis each day should not be envious of Dolezar as he drives around Johannesburg in an expensive German model with his name emblazoned on the doors.
So little separates these gladiators of South African soccer that unless one side has an off-day (a highly unlikely occurence given the R1,1-million first prize), it could come down to a spark of genius on or off the field.
I recall Sundowns Sello “Page” Mahlangu saying a few months ago that players win matches, not coaches, and his point is well taken. However, one cannot underestimate the roles Dolezar and Dumitru may play.
Let us look first at the reasons why the likeable and excitable Dolezar may have lost a few more hairs from the top of his head this week, as he prepares for a repeat of the 1997 final, which Chiefs won on penalties after a replay.
Problem number one is who replaces former Bafana Bafana Tshisevhe, sent off in the second leg of the semi- finals against Orlando Pirates for an off-the-ball incident with Jerry Sikhosana.
Dolezar picked Malawian national player Patrick Mabedi beside captain Neil Tovey and Namibian Mohamed Auseb against SuperSport United in a Castle Premiership encounter last weekend.
Perhaps Mabedi was overawed by the fact that he was on “trial”, but he did not perform to expectations and was replaced at half-time – an unusually early departure for any defender.
The tall Winstanley twins – Neil and Ivan – are cup tied having joined Chiefs after playing for Wits University in previous rounds and this leaves Dolezar with fewer options that he would like.
He could risk Mapedi, believing he can rise to the occasion, but I doubt it, which may mean a deeper, left-side defensive role for Martin Zwane, whose curriculum vitae includes a spell at Sundowns.
Not an ideal situation, perhaps, but if Zwane can curb a tendency to tackle over the top, his experience from many seasons in top-flight football should serve him well.
Gqosha, serving an automatic two-match suspension for accumulating four cautions, operates on the right side of midfield and his role can be more easily filled with Namibian Robert Nauseb the favourite.
He was also on “trial” against SuperSport and performed well enough to book a place in the starting line-up, probably beside Thabo Mooki, Doctor Khumalo, Thabang Lebese and Robson Muchichwa.
Marc Batchelor, who should have been sent off for a deliberate elbow into the face of SuperSport defender Andrew Tucker, which would have barred him from the final, and Pollen Ndlanya, appear the likely strike force.
Well here I am, staring at my humble PC and 15 paragraphs into my weekly indulgence, and the sports editor has come for a brief inspection of the latest crimes I have committed against the English language.
So, Muchineripi, the truth is out: you are a Chiefs supporter, he says. I protest my innocence only to discover that the space kindly allocated to me is fast filling and I have barely mentioned Sundowns.
Perhaps that is because I feel they are more comfortably placed as D-Day looms with a 2-1 victory over Orlando Pirates last weekend despite playing nowhere near their full potential.
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As Springbok rugby coach Nick Mallett reminded us last weekend, the sign of a good team is one that plays badly and wins. For the Boks in Edinburgh, read Sundowns at Soccer City.
One “Brazilian” who rose above the ordinary was left wingback Jethro “Lovers” Mohlala, who was always going to stand out given his dyed, multicoloured hairstyle.
With Dumitru deploying four at the back, Mohlala did not have to concern himself so much with defensive duties and the result was devastating for the Buccaneers as he scored the first goal and made the second.
Let us not fool ourselves, the final is unlikely to be classic exhibition of attacking football; rather a close battle of attrition in which caution will take preference over adventure.
Dumitru believes he has more potential match-winners than Chiefs and points to the victory over Pirates being achieved despite a below-par showing from giant Nigerian striker Raphael Chukwu.
Captain Daniel Mudau, Mohlala and Charles Motlohi (witness his exquisite chipped goal against Seven Stars in the semi-finals) are other men capable of destroying the Amakhosi.
Chiefs will look first to Ndlanya, two- goal hero of the first-leg win over Pirates, while Batchelor can make and take chances. Further back, midfielders Thabang Lebese and Thabo Mooki pose threats.
The sports editor has returned, muttering something about a deadline and asking whether I am aware that the national rugby and cricket teams were also in action this weekend (a nice way of telling me to stop writing).
To summarise, Chiefs have the edge in goal and defence while Sundowns appear better equipped in midfield and attack. How is that for a politically correct analysis of a football final?
CRICKET: First Test, South Africa vs West Indies
Andy Capostagno
It may have begun as a shambles, but the West Indies tour gets properly under way this week with the first Test and, for purely cricketing reasons, it promises to be a cracker. Talk of history and money has thankfully been put on the backburner.
It is indeed the first official Test between the two countries on South African soil and there is reason to believe that certain of the tourists are being well paid to play in it, although not as well as their rebel counterparts were in the mid-1980s. But who cares? This could be a great series because it features great players.
As good a judge as Stephen Jack believes that Hansie Cronje will underperform against what is likely to be a barrage of pace from the West Indians.
But Jack, as a retired fast bowler, carries the prejudice all of his type do when they see a man who is supposed to be a good player flinching against balls aimed at the ribcage. Last week Cronje flinched in his first innings against the tourists and was one of many failures as Free State succumbed for 67.
But Cronje is nothing if not a fighter and his second innings, 158 not out, won the match for his team and scored psychological points aplenty.
Any team led by a captain who is on top of his game has a natural advantage. And as much as Cronje’s counterpart Brian Lara may downplay his own fragmented team’s chances, the fact that he has already tucked some 300 runs under his belt suggests that a pinch of salt may be required when the pre-lunch drinks trolley comes on to the field.
By the time you read this the teams will be known and it is unlikely that the Wanderers crowd will be luxuriating in the wiles of wrist spin. South Africa have included Paul Adams in their squad as much to keep him out of mischief as anything else, it seems.
His bowling this season has been too shoddy to deserve a Test place, but he will be put to work in the nets and, on pitches that reward spinners rather more than this one is likely to, he may yet be one of Cronje’s most important weapons.
Lara has been singing the praises of his own leg-spinner all tour, but if Dinanath Ramnarine plays at the Wanderers it will surely only be because three of the five pace bowlers have broken down in training.
Firstly, Ramnarine has scarcely set the world on fire on tour. He took three for 138 against Free State and will, no doubt, have reminded his captain that this fellow Cronje plays spin rather well. Secondly, he has been carrying a shoulder injury for several months. And thirdly, there are only two or three grounds in the entire world more encouraging to fast bowlers than the Wanderers.
It is scarcely the green mamba of “Mean Machine” legend and it certainly does not have the pace and bounce of Perth, but Johannesburg’s altitude provides the one thing that all quicks look for: carry to the wicket-keeper and slips. There may come a time on tour when Lara needs variety, but for the first Test the pace of Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Nixon McLean and Mervyn Dillon will do nicely thank you, and Carl Hooper is a much better off-spinner than most people give him credit for.
And if groundsman Andy Atkinson should, by some miracle, produce a pitch which turns sharply from day three, the occasional leg spin of Shivnarine Chanderpaul is a nice alternative for Lara to have up his sleeve.
Ever since the pre-tour shenanigans, the South African side has been talked up as resounding favourites. But just because the selectors could reel off nine certainties in the first two minutes of their initial meeting does not mean there are no problems.
For various reasons, Allan Donald enters the game severely underbowled. For one who relies so much on rhythm, that is no good thing.
Shaun Pollock has only just emerged from an injury cloud and since no-one seems to know for sure what the injury was, where it came from and why it went away, there is no good reason why it should not recur at precisely the wrong moment.
If either Donald or Pollock is below his best the pressure on debutant paceman David Terbrugge could be crippling. He is a good young bowler who maintains a steady off stump line and eases the ball away from the bat.
But against the devil-may-care attitude of the West Indians he could find out rather more about himself than he is prepared for right now. Indeed, by the end of a presumably Adams-less Test, the United Cricket Board may be wondering how on earth they managed to overlook the claims of Makhaya Ntini, a genuine product of the very development system which the National Sports Council is now suspicious of, a modest success on the tour to England and every bit as good a bowler as the worthy, but white, Terbrugge.