ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Saturday 4.30pm.
Kaizer Chiefs ………. 2 (Nomvete 53, Mooki 61)
African Wanderers …… 1 (Mthalane 14)
IT may have been the first senior competitive club match of the new century in South Africa, but there was no sign of Buck Rogers on Saturday as Chiefs moved into second place on the Castle Premiership standings.
The fact that the once-mighty Amakhosi are occupying such a lofty berth, five points behind Sundowns with four matches more played, says a lot about the current state of the national sport.
While the closeness of the score demanded the attention of a smallish crowd, the quality of the football certainly did not as an all-too-regular diet of sloppy passing and wild shooting was served.
Referee George Tladi did not give a five-star performance either, harshly sending off Martin Zwane of Chiefs and Tony Ilodigwe of Wanderers with three minutes left for pushing that warranted no more than yellow cards.
While Chiefs coach Muhsin Ertugral later tried to make tactical sense of his success, it boil down to something much simpler, namely fitness. The Wanderers players showed all the signs in the second half of enjoying a good Christmas.
Perhaps it was a second helping of turkey and ham, a helping too many of plum pudding, or a couple of extra mince pies, but the visitors from Durban ran out of steam early in the second half.
Chiefs suddenly inherited space repeatedly denied them in the opening half and goals from former Wanderers striker Siyabonga Nomvete and Thabo Mooki within nine minutes turned the tide.
Nigerian Ilodigwe outpaced one defender and beat another before crossing to Sinothi Mthalane, who stabbed the ball past Brian Baloyi to give the mid-table club an early advantage they comfortably retained until half-time.