Derby win was defining for Chiefs

For entertainment value, the Soweto derby was everything a derby day should be.

The circumstances and form of both teams made it so hyped beforehand, and I think it also created the “perfect” derby. Both teams went in there looking for the three points and that is why the entertainment value was so great.

Pirates played very attack-minded football, Daniel Akpeyi stood between Pirates and a goal or two, but they were also rushed in the final third. Their final pass was not what it normally is, and players who normally come to the party, like Thembnkosi Lorch, Gabadinho Mhango and Vincent Pule, were just not at their best on the day.

Chiefs went into the game with a solid gameplan. Their plan was more conservative, to deal with Pirates’ threat going forward, and they did that with great aplomb. They were very good defensively, very solid, and they managed to capitalise on that and score. Chiefs were very dangerous on the counter-attack, they had a plan to catch Pirates, and in the first half found a lot of space in front of the Pirates defence, just behind where Fortune Makaringe and Ben Motshwari were playing. Lebogang Manyama was finding that space and took full advantage of it.

In the second half Pirates corrected that error and went looking for a goal. They created a lot and couldn’t score. It has to be said that Pirates could have been a bit more clinical, but that is to take nothing away from Akpeyi. It takes something for a goalkeeper to get back and make a save from out of position, and Akpeyi made a triple save in the second half.

With Akpeyi’s selection, you have to give credit to Ernst Middendorp, I think he is a fair coach. With Itumeleng Khune’s ability, authority, experience and distribution, it is difficult to keep a goalkeeper of that magnitude, one of the best goalkeepers in South Africa, on the bench. But when a goalkeeper has come in and filled the void when Khune was injured, as Akpeyi has done, and had done a good job, you must stick to your guns. Akpeyi deserves to be Chiefs number one if you look at his form over the whole season, and Middendorp made the right call.

As for Manyama, you need a player like him in your team if you are going to win the league, an attacking midfielder who can ship in with seven or eight goals. Then if your two strikers can get you eight or 10 goals each you can harbour the ambition to win the Absa Premiership. If you don’t have Manyama chipping in, it has to be a player like Khama Billiat. At the moment it is Manyama and the front men are also racking up goals, and if this happens you tend to find yourself in the top three at the end of the season. Manyama had an earlier opportunity where I think he took an extra touch and the chance went. Even with the goal, I felt he had maybe taken a touch too many, but he beat the defender and the goalkeeper, what a clinical finish!

I think it is a bit too late for Pirates to win the title now, if Chiefs are going to be threatened it is going to be by Sundowns. This was a defining match for Chiefs, they could have started listening to the critics and started saying “ok, maybe the football we are playing won’t see us win the championship”. But it was only one league loss to Maritzburg United, and then they were knocked out of the Nedbank Cup on penalties.

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