Former Kaizer Chiefs defender Morgan Gould said Chiefs players will get exposure now that they have qualified for the group stages of the Caf Confederations Cup and expects a scrappy encounter against coach Gavin Hunt’s Durban City on Friday [October 31].
Returning to continental football
Chiefs beat AS Simba 3-1 on Sunday [October 26] and secured a spot in the group stages of the Caf Confederations Cup.
Over the last few years, only Orlando Pirates, Mamelodi Sundowns and Stellenbosch FC, as South African clubs, have made their presence felt in the African continent.
Pirates and Sundowns played in the Caf Champions League semi-finals last season, with Sundowns missing out narrowly in the final last year.
For a club as big as Chiefs, getting back to playing in a continental competition is a massive achievement.
The former defender, Gould, believes this achievement will do Chiefs a world of good.
Gould emphasised that Chiefs will be tested throughout the competition.
“It’s always good to go into continental competitions, it just gives you a lot of pedigree. It tests your flexibility not just on the football side but from the social side. Chiefs being a big team, economically it makes sense for them because they’ll just be selling more units,” Gould told SportsBoom.co.za in an exclusive interview.
“And then when it comes to the club’s ambitions to play in bigger tournaments such as the Fifa Club World Cup, Caf competitions are the type of tournaments that they need to compete in.”
“The club obviously has a mission to go and play the next Fifa Club World Cup and a couple of Fifa Club World Cups after that. This is how you start, you go to your semi-final of your Caf Champions League, reach the final of the Caf Confederations Cup, those are the types of things that you need.”
“This is a step in the right direction. It’s still a journey that’s obviously going to be testing, but it’s a journey that I think is not impossible to get to the land of milk and honey.”
Gould added that playing in continental competitions poses its own challenges, including the logistics, as Chiefs will now be travelling all around Africa for the Caf Confederations Cup.
The 42-year-old reiterated that Chiefs will need to employ different formations, use different players and have different approaches to be successful in Africa.
“It’s going to take different approaches, different formations and different players. It’s also good for a team like Kaizer Chiefs to go into these tournaments to put the players to the test because if you don’t play in these top tournaments, when are you gonna get the experience?” Gould asked.
“They’ll be facing the ultimate challenges in how they travel because Africa is not like Europe. Europe is totally different, you move by subway, you move by plane, and it’s only an hour or two hours. In Africa, it’s a different story. Those types of things are also gonna test the players and how much they want it, their desire and the drive.”
Durban City fixture
On Friday, Chiefs will set their sights back to local football as they are scheduled to face a wounded Durban City side at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
The Durban Citizens, as City are also known, lost 1-3 against Richards Bay this past weekend, a feat that will put coach Gavin Hunt under immense pressure, as it is a KwaZulu-Natal derby.
Gould believes that Chiefs will look to impose themselves on City. Gould also acknowledged that City will be looking to make a statement, especially as Hunt is under pressure following the loss to Richards Bay.
“It’s not going to be an easy game. Durban City took a blow against Richards Bay. I think that’s the only problem for Chiefs, they are playing a wounded tiger. They will want to lick their wounds and come back and throw their way back up,” Gould told SportsBoom.co.za.
“It’s going to be a very tricky game where you have a former coach (Hunt) who coached at Chiefs and didn’t get the greatest success.”
“It might just be a scrappy game because, knowing the tactician that Gavin is, he’d want it to be a war zone. It’s going to be a very close game.”
“I can’t put my head on the block because on one side there’s a master tactician, on the other side you’ve got a powerhouse of a team, and it’s really difficult to say.”
The Kaizer Chiefs and Durban City encounter will get underway at 19H30 at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Friday.
Sipho Siso News 
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