A resurgent Kaizer Chiefs under the tutelage of its Tunisian mentor Nasreddine Nabi
appears to have finally turned a dark corner to come out of the soccer doldrums and
reclaim its past glory.
Although ‘Abafana Bokuthula Noxolo’, as Chiefs is also known to its avid followers,
have not done so well in the league for many seasons, the arrival of Nabi on the
coaching
bench has some how showed signs of improvement as the boys are beginning to
play the brand of football that made the club one of the most feared and popular side
of the Premier Soccer League.
For close to a decade now, AmaKhosi have not tasted glory in the premiership and
the club, once regarded as cup specialists, slumped in form leading to a seven-year
cup drought in its trophy cabinet.
Although the Nedbank Cup is the last trophy of the league, it looks promising that
AmaKhosi Amahle may lift this trophy if only it can overcome twice in a row holders
Orlando Pirates, which has incidentally snatched the title of cup specialists right
under the feet of AmaKhosi, also known as the Soweto Glamour Boys.
The other hurdle Chiefs needs to watch out for is Mamelodi Sundowns, which has
turned out to be the nemesis for Chiefs in past seasons’ games. Last season,
Masandawana beat Chiefs twice and in the current campaign, the Tshwane outfit has
already beaten AmaKhosi twice, once in the league and the other trashing was in the
Carling Black Label Knockout.
Chiefs’ fundamental issues around its mediocre performance has to do with its
defence. The club needs to beef-up its backline, which has allowed the same
number of goals its forwards have scored so far in the current season to leak back
into their own net as well. So far, AmaKhosi has scored 20 goals but also allowed 19
goals to be scored against them.
This scenario tells you there is something sadly wrong with the defence. Once this
defensive anomaly is nibbed-in-the-bud, then AmaKhosi faithful azobamnandi. This
is what Nabi is fixing so that not too many leaks from the defence into its own net
and the current run the Nedbank Cup appears to have closed the loophole as the
side has won its two rounds without conceding at all.

The Mighty Buccaneers, on the other end, are hoping to break the record by
annexing the Nedbank Cup thrice in a row by successfully defending it twice. “We
want to go all the way in this cup competition and we’re conditioning ourselves as the
technical staff and players to ensure we achieve this feat,” said Bucs Spaniard coach
Jose Riveiro.