Ernst Middendorp, coach of Kaizer Chiefs (Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix)
It begins on Sunday against ABC Motsepe League minnows Tornado at Sisa Dukashe stadium in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape.
Middendorp is leaving no stone unturned in their preparation.
“There is always that expectation when a Premiership team plays a team from the lower ranks… I think we will have to dominate and, of course, score the goals.
“[A game like this] is something to provide a certain mindset. It is not new. It is thus important to prepare properly. We don’t take it lightly,” he said yesterday.
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The 60-year-old mentor is tasked to do what two coaches before him couldn’t achieve – to win trophies and keep the club’s long-standing legacy as cup kings going.
It is now going on four years since the Glamour Boys celebrated a cup triumph.
Things have certainly changed since Middendorp took over from Giovanni Solinas, who seemed to run out of ideas as soon as he took the job and was seen as taking Amakhosi nowhere.
The team are now structurally better and their displays are industrious and guided.
But having been dumped out of the Caf Confederation Cup last weekend, an early exit from Ke Yona would be disastrous for the German-born mentor.
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Amakhosi now have the Nedbank Cup and Absa Premiership titles to fight for to avert another shameful unsuccessful campaign and that is why Middendorp is going into the finer details to ensure no upset on Sunday.
“In preparation for this game we are happy to have our first full week of preparation this year,” he said.
“The players had some recovery time – both active and passive.
“At the moment it is our obligation not to be half hearted and to do what is possible with our squad.
“We have seen Tornado. And we take the game [seriously] in terms of analysing it in every aspect [so we will] be well prepared and, of course, in the end to make it with our own ideas, and to set up to be successful in the end.”
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