It might have been labelled the ”Derby of the Damned”, with the teams damned by their own supporters for a succession of uninspiring performances this season, but the sold-out signs still went up on Friday morning for Saturday’s showdown between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs at Ellis Park.
A statement from the Buccaneers’ camp, the host team on this occasion, confirmed that all 48 000 seats available to the public had been snapped up more than 24 hours before the kick-off. It is the first meeting at Ellis Park between the Soweto rivals since 43 spectators lost their lives during a crowd stampede in 2001.
And with an estimated 6 000 seats in the suites and such-like, the projected 54 000-strong crowd target has already been reached — indicating the intense, even morbid fascination with the two clubs among South African soccer followers continues unabated in spite of the level of football they are providing.
Pirates currently occupy seventh position in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) log and Chiefs, in ninth position, are precariously placed to finish among the top eight teams in the log and qualify for next season’s Supa8 competition.
But PSL general manager Andrew Dipela proclaimed earlier this week that ”league positions don’t matter as far as this game is concerned — because it is all a matter of tradition and even the ANC [African National Congress] government stops working for 90 minutes to keep track on what is happening in the derby”.
Pirates fans, meanwhile, are imploring Democratic Republic of Congo-born coach Bibey Mutombo to recall the recently out-of-favour bevy of brilliant homegrown players such as Gift Leremi, Joseph Makhanya and Lebohang Mokoena in order to regain the scintillating style of play that has deserted the Buccaneers recently.
The future of Chiefs’ Serbian coach, Kosta Papic, who was initially brought to South Africa by Pirates, could be dependent on this game, with both teams seeking to gain lost prestige and pride from a successful outcome. — Sapa