Erick Mathoho celebrates scoring a goal with Samir Nurkovic and Willard Katsande during the Absa Premiership match between Kaizer Chiefs and Cape Town City FC at FNB Stadium. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
They win games they’d normally lose. They are hard to beat as every team in the league can attest.
They proved that they are a side capable of winning this league title last weekend when they beat a determined Cape Town City side 3-0. I saw some misleading headlines claiming that Amakhosi outclassed their opponents.
The best way to put it would be ‘Amakhosi outwit City’ because they never outclassed anybody on that hot Sunday afternoon. In fact, that works the other way around. It was City who outclassed Amakhosi.
The difference and what makes the scoreline what it is is that Chiefs clinically took their chances and restricted City’s movements especially towards their own goal. City could play all they wanted so long as they kept away from the Chiefs goals, that what it seemed Chiefs were saying on the day.
Chiefs’ good run has been based on three partnerships that have worked well. Defensively, they have the Mathoho-Cardoso combination which has been consistent although can be easily broken if you are a clever enough striker like Judas Moseamedi.
The duo have been solid at centre back and it helps that they can also contribute goals during set plays like corner kicks, free kicks and penalties.
Then there is a central midfield pairing of Maluleka-Katsande. The duo play neat. They know they have to get dirty for the result and they do that without fear or shame. Like last weekend where they were both dummied by Bradley Ralani but that didn’t stop them from hustling.
The most successful combination however has been up front with Manyama-Nurkovic-Castro providing the most goals and assists so far this season. They are lethal and have ‘killed’ so many teams.
But the worry now is, what happens if one in each of the three partnerships were to be unavailable for let’s say three games? For an example, let’s say Mathoho, Maluleka and Manyama were to be unavailable for four games.
Would the team still be as strong as they have been or would they stutter? I’m sure no Khosi fan wants to see this happen but it could happen. I just hope that Ernst Middendorp has a plan, if that were to happen.
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