Goalkeeper Francis Chansa had every right to celebrate after Orlando Pirates had added to Kaizer Chiefs’ recurring woes with a 3-1 penalty shoot-out victory in the second game of the Telkom Charity Cup at a sun-scorched Mmabatho Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Democratic Republic of Congo goalkeeper brought off a hat trick of successive saves after Soweto’s arch-rivals had drawn 1-1 in regulation time and left the shoot-out to decide who would face Bloemfontein Celtic.
There was no joy for the Chiefs’ fans,who dominated the 50 000 crowd, but started streaming towards the exits soon after their team’s elimination.
Their misery was forcibly shared by Shaun Bartlett, Tinashe Nengomasha and Scara Ngobese, whose somewhat timid spot-kicks were intuitively saved by Chansa.
It was Chiefs’ fourth successive defeat in pre-season friendly competitions and must have baffled club chairperson Kaizer Motaung, who proclaimed he was at a loss to understand how Amakhosi could have been beaten by the Buccaneers when they met in a Vodacom Challenge game 10 days ago.
To compound the Chiefs’ concern under returning coach Muhsin Ertugral is the fact that apart from a brief period of 10 minutes after Nengomasha’s rasping 68th minute equaliser, Amakhosi continued to perform with little enterprise or inspiration.
For all this, Chiefs squandered what was probably the best opportunity of winning the game within 90 minutes when substitute David Mathebula waltzed past the Pirates’ defence, but ballooned the ball past the post.
It was noticable, however, that Pirates were the better team and deserved success against their old foes — even before new Chiefs’ signing Moketi Tsotetsi had given them the lead in the 64th minute with a calamitous, miscued own goal.
It was also an encouraging way of bouncing back for the Buccaneers after the humbling 3-0 defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur in the final of the Vodacom Challenge at Loftus last week.
Chansa explained that Pirates had learnt their lessons from the North London Premiership club and put the results into good effect against Chiefs with greater composure, more accurate passing and relentless concentration.
Chiefs, for their part, seemed to have learnt little — either from Spurs or anyone else. – Sapa