After the stark famine of a mere one goal in six Premier Soccer League games, with three of these matches drawn and the other three ending in defeats, Kaizer Chiefs gorged themselves on an amazing second-half scoring feast while beating Free State Stars 4-1 at a sweltering Charles Mopeli Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The demoralised, disjointed glamour club of South African soccer, who had managed to place the ball in the net only once in 605 minutes of frustrating football, disbelievingly produced four goals in a matter of 20 minutes to turn around a 0-1 deficit against Stars.
And, what is more, each of Amakhosi’s goals was a gem in its own right, with the Free State team, who had been in the ascendancy for much of the opening 65 minutes, ultimately looking bemused and bewildered in the face of a dazzling onslaught.
It was Stars who opened the score in the 53rd minute via a penalty kick from goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene, who also prevented Chiefs equalising seven minutes later with a spectacular swallow-like swoop.
But from that point, it was all Chiefs, with an unmarked Gerald Sibeko coolly slotting the ball into the corner of the net from close-range in the 65th minute for an equaliser.
Then, with a second Amakhosi goal in the space of two minutes, the adroit David Mathebula somehow guided the ball into the roof of the net from virtually on the goalline.
Moses Khanyeza made the score 3-1 in the 75th minute after coming on as a late substitute and demonstrating the skill of a snooker master while back-flipping the ball into the net with his back to the goal.
And the diminutive Sibeko’s second goal in the 85th minute from a 22m free-kick sailed into the roof of the net and was world-class.
In the wake of their goal spree, Chiefs moved up three places in the log table to ninth place and banished much of the heartache of their recent disastrous run.
Stars, in the process, critically damaged their championship challenge, with the scars of an amazing turnaround of fortunes possibly taking some time to heal. — Sapa