/ 21 August 2008

Is Ertugral dancing too soon?

It is not clear whether one should tell Muhsin Ertugral, the Kaizer Chiefs coach, to stop dancing the way he did when his team beat Santos 4-0 and Moroka Swallows 2-0 in the MTN 8 quarterfinal and first leg of the semifinal respectively.

It’s not only that he cannot dance; his team also still have to face Swallows in the second-leg semifinal on Sunday at 3pm at Olympia Park in Rustenburg.

Though it is not fair to compare our standard of football with that of English Premiership champions Manchester United, Ertugral should have learned a lesson during the Vodacom Challenge when he sang the praises of his players after they held Manchester to a one-all draw, only to be thrashed 4-0 days later by Manchester.

The MTN 8 competition — dubbed Wafa Wafa — carries a prize money of R8-million for the winners, making it the richest knockout contest in the country.

Chiefs have been playing entertaining football in their first two matches, with strikers Gert Schalkwyk and Jose Torrealba combining well up front and impressive running of the ball, from which many other PSL strikers can learn.

Ertugral can be forgiven for being convinced that his team will lift the inaugural MTN 8 trophy next month going into their next match at an advantage after their 2-0 first-leg win.

Still, if Chiefs book a place in the final, they will face either Mamelodi Sundowns or SuperSport United, who will square off against each other on Saturday at 8pm at the Super Stadium in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria, in the second leg of the MTN 8 semifinal.

Sundowns go into Sunday’s match with a 2-1 lead over the league champions, SuperSport. The first leg was not as entertaining as expected, and Saturday’s match should produce the same tactical discipline typical of a cup game.

Sundowns need to win for coach Trott Moloto’s sake, whose boss, Patrice Motsepe, hates to be on the losing end.

As for Ertugral, Chiefs fans would surely prefer to see his dance moves every week rather than his other habit of throwing chairs from the bench.