Match of the season!?

I attended the Kaizer Chiefs-Ajax Cape Town match at Orlando Stadium yesterday — from the comfort of my living room — and what a match it turned out to be. For the first time in a long time it looked like Kaizer Chiefs had solved their goal-scoring problems but it still wasn’t enough to get them through to the final of the Mtn8 Wafa Wafa Cup.

It looked like they had fixed things up-front and in midfield but their defence didn’t get the memo. They scored well — a six-goal thriller (3-3) — but ended up conceding the same amount of goals they scored.

You can’t win the league in the first few games of the season and it looks like it’s going to be a long and hard one for the Amakhosi faithful. They won everything in pre-season when the new coach arrived but have so far faltered when it really matters.

First it appeared like their major barrier was the strike-force because the goals were not forthcoming but then the problems moved to defence. Jeffrey Ntuka and Thomas Sweswe didn’t show any chemistry at all and played far apart from each other. Ajax found holes in their defence every time they went forward.

Ajax could have opened the scoring as early as the fourth minute when Thulani Serero missed a great chance with only the goalkeeper to beat. The Chiefs coach was wary of Ajax at set-pieces and the first Ajax goal came from a free-kick, which was curled beautifully by the skipper, Brett Evans. When Chiefs replied with two goals in two minutes, I thought it was going to be one of those so-near-yet-so-far afternoons for Ajax Cape Town. They won two penalties and converted one of them.

Hans Vonk proved that experience counts when you’re a goalkeeper. He out-shone his younger counterpart, Kabelo Metsimetsi, pulling some spectacular saves on Jose Torrealba, Nkosinathi Nhleko and Mandla Masango. When Siphiwe Tshabalala scored the third goal for Chiefs, the game was heading for a nail-biting finish and the Chiefs faithful played their part as the 12^th man. Little did they know that Franklin Cale had other ideas when he scored a screamer from 30 yards out which all but ended Chiefs’ hopes.

I have to say the game was a show of attacking football, box-to-box action, edge-of-the-seat stuff but in the end Ajax prevailed winning 4-3 on aggregate. So far Ajax have shown they are a force to reckon with, they have knocked both Soweto giants from the cup.

Man of the match: Franklin Cale deserved it and got it. He was a constant thorn in the Ajax left flank. He also took a number of shots from the distance which troubled the goalkeeper. If Diyo Sibisi had brought his scoring boots, he could have wrapped the match before half-time. He finished his afternoon with arguably what we could say is the goal of the weekend.

Players to watch: In Serero and Masango, South Africa have two exciting players. They’re in the squad for the forthcoming Under-20 World Cup. If they display this kind of form, South Africa will be up there with the best at this youth world cup.