Sundowns Head coach Rhulani Mokwena might have the upper hand against Kaizer Chiefs. Picture: EPA, KHALED ELFIQI
You have to go back to April 2021 to find a Kaizer Chiefs league victory over Mamelodi Sundowns – that’s over two years of Amakhosi playing second fiddle to the Brazilians.
And there is little, if anything, to suggest that the status quo will change any time soon – at least not tomorrow when the two teams meet in a Premiership clash at the Lucas Moripe Stadium.
Since that 2-1 victory at Loftus Versfeld – when they inflicted Sundowns’ first defeat of the 2020/21 season via a Dumisani Zuma winner, having seen a Musa Lebusa own goal cancel out Gaston Sirinho’s opener – Chiefs’ best result against the multiple champions was a 1-1 draw in May last year.
They were beaten three times in the other games, conceding seven times without finding the opposition’s net.
While they have said this is the season in which they reclaim their standing as local football giants, Amakhosi’s goalless draw in their opening match against Chippa United gave the impression that they and glory are more like the parallel lines of the railway line – destined never to meet.
Sundowns, on the other hand, looked like a well-oiled machine as they overcame Sekhukhune United.
Coach Rulani Mokwena was indeed chuffed with himself after seemingly succeeding in his plan to make his team less predictable this season.
Speaking at the club’s headquarters in Chloorkop yesterday, the young coach expressed delight at being told his formation Friday night at the Peter Mokaba was confusing.
“A colleague, a friend who is an analyst of one of the top teams in Europe, said to me after the match, ‘I don’t know what you guys are doing. I am trying to figure out your formation but I am lost’.
“That’s the point.
“I felt last season that as soon as the league (title) was wrapped up, we had become so predictable. People knew we overloaded the centre with the diamond and all they did was narrow their defensive structures and kept compact.
“We had problems trying to find different possibilities to break down the opposition structures.”
For this season he has worked on using tactics and formations that will confuse the opposition.
“We try to make ourselves less predictable, to try different ways of hurting the opponent and develop a chameleon-type of approach to our team’s personality.”
The extra bad news for Chiefs, apart from that they will be up against an ever-changing opponent, is that Mokwena appears to have Amakhosi figured out already – the fact they are under a new coach in Molefi Ntseki notwithstanding.
“They are not moving too far from their formation but they are a little aggressive with a more advanced line than the previous season under Arthur (Zwane),” he said, before rattling of the Chiefs players and their strengths.
Big as the match is, Mokwena anticipates it to be a cat-and-mouse type affair that will only flow freely after a goal has been scored.
“Chiefs will not be too open. They looked a little more conservative (on Sunday against Chippa) than last season.
“So, we have lots of work to do to try and break them. Their defensive line looked compact with two screeners.
“The one (team) who scores earlier has better possibilities because the game will produce more transition after that.”
@Tshiliboy