Kaizer Chiefs have made the Coca-Cola Cup their own playground, appearing in all three finals since the competition was reintroduced. With a victory in the first final and a loss last year to Jomo Cosmos, they now face Premier Soccer League rookies Silver Stars on Saturday.
In Stars Chiefs face a team that works collectively, but lacks a lot of experience in cup games.
Owen da Gama, coach of the Limpopo-based team, says of their dream run: ‘We expected to do well, but not to get to the final.â€
He says they respect Chiefs and on Saturday will go to Soccer City to learn from the glamour boys and at the same time enjoy themselves. ‘We want to make Limpopo proud and show the people that what we have achieved so far is not a fluke,†said Da Gama.
Aside from their cup run, Stars have been experiencing indifferent form in their league games — something that’s also been happening to Chiefs striker Patrick Mayo.
The much-hyped Eastern Cape-born striker’s transfer from Supersport United to Chiefs has had a mixed reception from the Amakhosi faithful. Mayo has had to bear insults hurled at him by the Chiefs fans, who at one point called him a cow.
These unsavoury remarks have not deterred the player. The 30-year-old Mayo is out to prove the fans wrong, and although he has scored only twice in 10 league games so far he has been a provider of many goals to his teammates.
And Mayo has twice rescued Chiefs from exiting the Coke Cup early. In the quarterfinal against Ajax Cape Town, Mayo scored the winning goal in a match that ended 3-2. Then came the sodden semifinal that had all the ingredients of an upset when Wits took an early lead only to have Mayo equalise before the rain came, therefore ensuring that Chiefs got the replay in which they out-thought and outclassed the students 3-0.
For Chiefs fans to continue booing Mayo now would be wrong — they should be praising him just his boss, Kaizer Motaung, did after he scored the winning goal against Manning Rangers that sent them to the top of the league a few weeks ago.
Mayo is a versatile player who is always willing to go back and defend when the pressure is on his team. The Zwide-born star played central midfield before Trott Moloto converted him into a striker at Bush Bucks.
On Saturday Mayo will get a chance to prove to the yellow-and-black-jersied supporters that he is one of them and always has been — he started his career with a team known as Young Chiefs in Port Elizabeth.Â
In Chiefs, Silver Stars meet a team determined to walk away with the cup and a striker hungry to prove himself.