Star-studded Mamelodi Sundowns retained the Telkom Charity Cup at an emotionally charged FNB Stadium on Saturday night by the skin of their teeth — but only after a goalkeeper named Postnett failed to deliver for Bloemfontein Celtic in the unfamiliar role of penalty-taker.
It was like a bolt of lightning out of the clear blue sky as Bloemfontein Celtic scored the 91st-minute, injury-time goal that sent Premier League champions Kaizer Chiefs tumbling out of the Telkom Charity Cup before 70 000 largely shocked spectators at the FNB Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
They may have had almost enough well-known players to assemble three line-ups strutting on to the field at FNB Stadium on Saturday for the opening Telkom Charity Cup semifinal against Black Leopards, but a tepid game was anything but a stroll in the park for Mamelodi Sundowns.
There was always a lingering suspicion that crusty Romanian-born coach Ted Dumitru had not left Kaizer Chiefs at the end of last season on the affable and harmonious note that was trumpeted about loud and clear. On Friday, Chiefs supremo Kaizer Motaung made a strongly worded attack on Dumitru on the club’s website.
Amiable Peter Manda has seemingly discovered that all is not gold that glitters at Mamelodi Sundowns and is relinquishing his position as CEO of the Brazilians to return to club president Patrice Motsepe’s ARMGold mining consortium. The quietly spoken CEO has only been at the helm of Sundowns for little more than a year.
It’s hard enough completing an intricate jigsaw puzzle, but when some of the most important pieces are missing — as in the case of Stuart Baxter’s planning for the World Cup qualifying matches against Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo — it’s hardly surprising the Bafana Bafana coach finds himself more than a little bemused.
As long as they remain overwhelmingly the most popular soccer clubs in the country, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates should be entrenched as participants in the annual Telkom Charity Cup. Who says so? None other than loquacious, controversial one-time Premier Soccer League public-relations officer Abdul Bhamjee.
It was sweet and emphatic revenge for Orlando Pirates as they beat Kaizer Chiefs 2-1 in the Vodacom Challenge Final at Absa Stadium on Sunday and dominated the team who had edged in front of them at the last hurdle in last season’s Premier League title race.
The Vodacom Challenge showdown between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates will be watched by a sell-out crowd of approximately 50 000 on Sunday, but the Buccaneers are still pondering allowing on the field their four Bafana Bafana players who recently took part in the Concacaf Gold Cup tournament in the United States.
”No shocks, no headlines, no surprises,” said Fifa director of communications Markus Siegler after arriving in Johannesburg on Monday as part of a delegation that is in South Africa to study facilities for the 2010 World Cup. But he followed his comment up with bad news for some of the country’s World Cup venues.