The million dollar question currently on the lips of Mamelodi Sundowns faithful is whether the Brazilians will manage to make it three-out-of-three over Kaizer Chiefs this season?
The Brazilians and AmaKhosi Amahle have so far met twice in the Betway Premiership, once in the league and the other in the Carling Black Label Knockout, both of which went down the Sundowns way at the FNB Stadium early in the current season.
The March 1 encounter at the Loftus Vesveld Stadium will mark the second round ot the current league and much is expected from both Masandawana and a rejuvenated Soweto Glamour Boys, as Chiefs is also known to its die-hard fans that always want nothing but victory over its two bitter rivals that include Orlando Pirates.
The Mighty Buccaneers managed to obtain a last minute penalty to win the Soweto Derby 1-0 and cling to the endless excitement and bragging rights that are savoured each time the two Soweto giants clash.
Masandawana have dominated Chiefs for a couple of seasons now and the resurgent AmaKhosi under the guidance of Tunisian mentor Nasreddine Nabi is slowly but surely getting it’s grove back, especially in the Nedbank Cup which is still on and all AmaKhosi faithful are hoping to annex it to end a long cup drought the club has experienced in a bad patch of a couple of seasons.
If it happens that the March 1 encounter goes the AmaKhosi way, this will bring much needed relief to the fans who yearn to end the tag of being the whipping boys of Sundowns and instill a measure of confidence in the work in progress of coach Nabi to resuscitate the fortunes of the once powerful and all conquering AmaKhosi outfit of yesteryears.
“If we can manage to put one win this season over Masandawana, that will give us much needed relief and inspiration that we’re on the right track with coach Nabi and we can look forward to 2025/26 season with some measure of belief that we can turn the tables come 2026,” said an avid Chiefs fan, Rapula Moratowa, of the club’s former stronghold of Phefeni township in Soweto.
During its heydays, Chiefs was popularly known as the Phefeni Boys which also signified the parental home of then football youngster, Kaizer Motaung, who grew up to become a soccer world beater in the United States of America’s Major League Soccer before returning home to form a Buccaneers’ splinter club Kaizer Chiefs in 1970 and quickly turned it into a formidable club that won all and everything that was on offer and dominated the then National Professional Soccer League and later the National Soccer League that gave birth to today’s Premier Soccer League.
Motaung turned 80 late last year and his erstwhile friend but foe in pitch, Dr Irvin ‘Iron Duke’ Khoza, chairperson of the PSL and Orlando Pirates showered Motaung with accolades and a whopping ‘R2 million cheque to go and spoil yourself’ during the NSL quaddrenial conference.

Kaizer Chiefs-Sundowns story: After the final whistle at Loftus Vesveld Stadium tomorrow, one of the two teams, ‘omunye uzoba yinja omunye zoba yimbongolo’.