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.
A bemused and bewildered Orlando Pirates were all at sea as record R190-million signing Darren Bent ran riot and virtually assured a 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur victory after 22 minutes of a one-sided Vodacom Challenge final at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday afternoon. The rest of the game on a sun-soaked but somewhat chilly winter afternoon was little more than an exhibition match.
At first glance, Tottenham Hotspur manager Martin Jol conjures up a picture of an imposing Rottweiler. And on Saturday, when Spurs take on Orlando Pirates in the finale to the Vodacom Challenge series of pre-season friendlies at Loftus, there can be little doubt about the ferocity of purpose with which the Netherlands-born manager will be barking orders.
A sensational 57th-minute goal from busy Benett Chenene gave Orlando Pirates a 1-0 win over arch-rivals Kaizer Chiefs at the Eastern Province Rugby Stadium on Thursday night and the right to oppose England’s Tottenham Hotspur for a second time at Loftus on Saturday in the pre-season Vodacom Challenge series of matches.
It is part of a series of friendly fixtures masquerading as a make-believe competition. But if there is a touch of the Mad Hatter’s illogic attached to the format of the Vodacom Challenge, it will not prevent what should be another near-capacity crowd from cramming into the Eastern Province Rugby Stadium on Thursday night.
A suggestion by a bungling Premier Soccer League (PSL) to league champions Mamelodi Sundowns to withdraw from the Telkom Charity Cup extravaganza at Mmabatho Stadium next Saturday has been rejected with the appropriate contempt. It was indeed the PSL who created the current embarrassing mish-mash in South African soccer.
It will be the last flight for the South African Airways (SAA) Supa8 competition after the national airline announced at the launch of the coming season’s competition it would not be renewing a five-year sponsorship. Symbolically, perhaps, holders Chiefs were absentees from the seeded draw by virtue of not finishing among the top eight teams in last season’s Premier Soccer League.
It would be no exaggeration to suggest that Orlando Pirates went through the turbulent process of navigating a succession of troubled and tempestuous waters for much of the past season. Now, having lost the services of five of their most cultured players, the Buccaneers give every impression of attempting to guide a rudderless ship as they prepare to take on Tottenham Hotspur.
Placed fifth in the recently-completed Premiership log, Tottenham Hotspur provided scant evidence of challenging the big four of English soccer for major honours in the coming season while completing a comfortable enough 2-1 victory over Kaizer Chiefs in the opening Vodacom Challenge game.
What a surprise! After being outplayed and outmanouevred in the first half of their CAF Confederation Cup game against the Democratic Republic of Congo’s TP Mazembe at Loftus on Saturday night and trailing 2-0 at the interval, PSL champions Mamelodi Sundowns stormed back and snatched a 3-2 victory.