OPINION: Kaizer Chiefs have made failure a habit

As the final whistle blew on Kaizer Chiefs’ Nedbank Cup ambitions on Sunday at FNB Stadium, there wasn’t so much a sense of shock as a feeling of ‘it’s happened again’.

This was, after all, the seventh time since 2009 that Amakhosi have been knocked out of South Africa’s premier cup competition by lower league opposition. Motsepe Foundation Championship side Milford FC deserve immense credit for their resolute display that saw them hold off everything Amakhosi threw at them to triumph in a penalty shoot out.

For Chiefs, however, this was another dismal loss, and on top of that it all-but guarantees that the most popular side in the country will go a ninth consecutive season without a trophy to their name.

It was good to see that the fans behaved themselves inside FNB Stadium.

Chiefs have had their problems with rioting fans in recent times, and were even forced to play Cape Town Spurs behind closed doors in early November. Obviously nobody wants to see coaches pelted with missiles, as Molefi Ntseki was in the final weeks of his Chiefs tenure.

But Chiefs need to be careful that failure does not become so ingrained at the club that they can never find a way out. Just as Sundowns have made winning a habit, Amakhosi are making losing a customary affair.

With no realistic chance of catching Mamelodi Sundowns in the DStv Premiership title race, it was imperative that Chiefs threw everything at the Nedbank Cup. And their players and coach Cavin Johnson talked a good game heading into this match.

All talk, no action

Like so many times before, however, all the talk didn’t play out on the pitch. Chiefs had chances to win the game – Ashley Du Preez hit the bar in the opening minutes when it looked easier to score, and Ranga Chivaviro had an extra time penalty saved by Milford hero Siphamandla Hleza.

Yet it wasn’t as if Amakhosi laid siege to the goal of their first division opponents. And this is a Championship side, by their own coach’s admission, whose ambition this season is simply to avoid relegation to the ABC Motsepe League.

It just isn’t good enough, and unless there is some serious soul-searching at Chiefs, it doesn’t look like changing any time soon. At the moment this is a club that is a marketing success story but a footballing failure.