Kaizer Chiefs undone by SuperSport United

The sooner Kaizer Chiefs remember that there are no rooms for comments in the results column the better their chances of making this the season they finally end their trophy drought.

For the second match running, Molefi Ntseki’s team dished out champagne football and essentially played their opponents off the pitch. But they still did not come out victorious.’

Unlike last weekend when they at least got a point against Royal AM, last night they ended up with nothing, Chiefs losing their DStv Premiership match away to SuperSport United at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane.

Caught cold by a second minute Terrence Dzvukamnja goal, Chiefs awoke to dominate the game but hard as they tried they just could not find a way to breach the home team’s defence. Were it a boxing match, they would have won it via a technical knockout – a stoppage by the referee given the pounding the opposition was taking.

90 + 3’| #SS 1 : 0 #KC

Full time score: (Dzvukamanja 2’) SuperSport United 1 : 0 Kaizer Chiefs#Amakhosi4Life #DStvPrem #Khosified pic.twitter.com/yqmvnCzU0m

— Kaizer Chiefs (@KaizerChiefs) September 20, 2023

This though was a football match, and as pleasing to the eye as it might be – dominating ball possession and spraying beautiful passes about the pitch count for nothing if you don’t eventually get the ball into the opposition’s net. Chiefs did not do that last night.

Instead it was SuperSport who did, Matsatsantsa a Pitori scoring as early as a minute and a half after kick-off. It was the kind of dream start not even their coach Gavin Hunt would have envisaged, although the multiple championship-winner is the type who would claim the goal was a training ground move.

Amakhosi looked to be in control deep in their half on the right side but a poor pass saw possession turned over and the ball ending up with the one man Chiefs would rather was tightly marked – Bradley Grobler.

The SuperSport talisman is not only a fantastic finisher but he has latterly become brilliant at setting up his fellow strikers and this time the son of legendary former Moroka Swallows striker Les Grobler showed incredible awareness and poise under pressure. Grobler delivered an immaculately dinked pass to find Dzvukamanja who smashed the ball home first time, to leave Itumeleng Khune with no chance.

Shocked into action by the early setback, Chiefs dominated the first half and fashioned up numerous chances, a few of them good enough to could have earned them the equaliser.

Jasond Gonzalez had a couple of those but failed to use any of them and ended up incurring the Amakhosi faithful’s wrath as they called for his substitution when he could not connect with a cross by Ashley Du Preez. He even had another late in the game but sent his shot way wide.

Du Preez had shot wide just after the quarter-hour mark when at least finding the target appeared much easier. There was a similar miss by Christian Saile on 33 minutes as Chiefs dominated but failed where it mattered most.

It was not all Chiefs though as SuperSport had their chance too. Dzvukamanja watched in disbelief as Khune pulled off a brilliant save to stop his header from going in on the 31st minute.

In the second half, Chiefs continued to dominate but not even the multiple changes that Ntseki amde could make a difference as they huffed and puffed in front of the SuperSport goal without sending Goss scooping the ball inside the net. He made a good save late in the game, grabbing at a tame Sifso Hlanti header from a free kick.

Shortly before that SuperSport’s first half substitute Bezuidenhout nearly made it 2-0 after Khune’s attempt at a fancy trap of a back pass ended up giving the ball to the young striker. But Bezuidenhout slipped as he took his shot and Chiefs survived. The veteran goalkeeper then pulled off a stupendous save to push out a splendid shot from outside the box by Jabu Matsio.

Dzvukamanja had long done the damage though.

@Tshiliboy