If ever anyone thought Orlando Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza was passing the buck when he explained his club’s poor run at the start of the season as a result of the cyclical nature of the game, the timing of Saturday’s fixture should vindicate him.
When Khoza spoke, few people, if any, would have predicted that the next date of Southern Africa’s premier football fixture would come with Pirates battling for the second spot on the log and an opportunity to play in the African Champions League.
They would also not have predicted that Kaizer Chiefs would be doing all they can to stay in the top eight of the log, thus enabling them to defend the SAA Supa Eight title they currently hold.
But Khoza, for all the criticism about him wearing too many hats and wielding too much power, cannot be accused of being a greenhorn in matters concerning the game.
The very fact that this fixture takes place at Ellis Park is indicative of the cycle Khoza blamed for Pirates’ worst start since the formation of the Premier Soccer League in 1997.
The two sides meet at a time when Chiefs is in free fall. Since coach Kostadin Papic was employed to arrest the decline that had started under his predecessor, Ernst Middendorp, they have lost two of their last four matches and now lie ninth on the log.
Pirates, on the other hand, are gradually climbing up the ladder, having only returned to the top half of the standing in the last two fixtures. They are the best-placed side to finish second.
That this is a Pirates home game — and at a venue where they have lost only once in about two years — shows how things have changed.
History books will show how Pirates fans hated seeing their team play at the Doornfontein ground. Pirates seemed as if they could not win there, no matter how hard or well they played. For years, Ellis Park was the veritable hoodoo ground.
On one of the many occasions that Pirates fans had their hearts ripped apart, a Jomo Cosmos upstart by the name of Johnny Masegela scored a heartbreaking hat-trick on a warm Sunday afternoon, cancelling Mandla ”Metroblitz” Sithole’s first-half brace which had made the Buccaneers faithful believe that the Ellis Park monkey was finally off their back. Pirates lost 3-2 and Masegela got the nickname ”Black Sunday”.
To date, Pirates have been defeated only once since they relocated to the home of the Gauteng Lions rugby team — a 1-0 reverse to a SuperSport United team who had come to the ground with the sole intention of not losing, rather than winning. How times have changed.
At around this time last season, Chiefs fans (I mean the honest ones) admired the easy flow of Pirates’ game under Papic. If they had their way, they would have fired Middendorp for making their team play what they believed was making the likes of Patrick ”Ace” Ntsoelengoe and club founder Ewert Nene turn in their graves, with its boring emphasis on grinding results at all costs.
On Saturday, Chiefs fans (again I only refer to the honest ones) will be wondering whether it was such a great idea to lure the former Pirates man, who is often criticised for being too one-dimensional in his approach.
Chiefs are not playing as scintillatingly as Pirates did under Papic. The optimistic view is that he is there to become familiar with the team and that next season will see him firing on all cylinders.
But those fans looking through less rosy glasses say the ageing Chiefs team simply does not have the sprightly youngsters who allowed for the fast-paced Pirates style that earned Papic fans across the badge divide.
Pirates, on the other hand, are playing arguably their worst football of the last 10 years, yet they are winning. Though their fans would wish the Papic style was at play, they will take any win that comes their way.
One thing that has not changed is that this remains one of the continent’s most eagerly awaited derbies.
For a change, the fans could have one up on the uppity Mamelodi Sundowns legion. Having lost out to Downs on everything else, this fixture allows the two teams to put the Pretoria side in its place. No matter how much money Sundowns have, they are yet to generate such magical interest across the region as when these two Soweto teams meet.
There is misleading talk about this being a ”pointless friendly”. I say misleading, because it is nonsensical to call any game between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs a friendly.
Sure, things have not gone the way either side would have liked this term. But nobody in their right mind will deny that this is by far Southern Africa’s favourite football fixture. Buses and taxis will leave Gaborone in Botswana and Mbabane in Swaziland to join fans from Lesotho’s Maseru, all just to be part of a unique footballing experience: it is called Orlando Pirates versus Kaizer Chiefs.