On Sunday, they face the troubled Platinum Stars in the Telkom Cup quarter-finals at FNB Stadium.
Losing a point against the Birds’ is a not a train-smash, however, fans were expecting too much, especially on the day the club’s chairman Kaizer “Chincha Guluva” Motaung was celebrating his 70th birthday.
Knowing Chiefs, they will bring along their scoring boots but again (as predicted the Swallows game) football does not depend on superlatives!
The visitors will not add the numbers but would fight with everything at their disposal.
Meanwhile, Stars have just a single win in their last eight games and have already been beaten three times by Chiefs this season without scoring a goal.
Their latest loss, to Ajax Cape Town on Wednesday, had coach Alan Freese fuming and suggesting the time may be right to bring keeper Siyabonga Mpontshane back into the team.
“We have a problem with our defence, we are conceding too many silly goals,” Freese said. “There were mistakes for both of their [Ajax] goals, but it is not just in this game. We keep having to chase the game because of conceding unnecessary goals and that makes it very difficult for us.
“It is a major concern for me, we have strikers who can score but we are letting in too many at the back. We have to make sure we don’t concede first and I think the goal will come at the other end.”
Freese admits his side were poor at the back also in their three games against Chiefs – two in the MTN8 semi-finals and the other in the League – when they let in seven goals.
“We have to defend better than we did in those games, we cannot give away free goals.”
Stars have largely used Botswana international goalkeeper Kabelo Dambe this season, dropping their ever-present from last year, Mpontshane, to the bench.
But after Dambe was at fault for the first goal against Ajax when he let a long-range shot beat him at the near post, Freese hinted at the change.
“I must think very hard about that, maybe it is time for a change. Mpontshane let his form drop earlier in the season which is why we brought Dambe in, a Botswana international, but … we must think about the next game.”
Full TKO fixtures:
Saturday
Wits v SuperSport, Bidvest Stadium- 3pm
Downs v AmaZulu, Loftus- 5:30pm
Pirates v Ajax CT, Orlando Stadium- 8:15
Sunday
Chiefs v Stars, FNB- 3pm
