Woodwork lesson for Kaizer Chiefs: a rare defeat as Sundowns and Wits move smoothly on

Never smile at a crocodile: Rodgers, super-sub

SLOWLY but surely, Kaizer Chiefs were mounting a meaningful defence of their PSL title. Last week they needed a dodgy penalty to sneak past Bloemfontein Celtic. On Sunday, Platinum Stars hit the woodwork THREE times but appeared to be about to succumb by the same 1-0 scoreline.

It took a Camaldine Abraw header to best Cavin Johnson’s crocodiles in Cape Town, where nearly 20,000 turned up at the AmaKhosi’s second home.

With Mpumalanga Black Aces, the PSL’s Leicester City, slipping up at AmaTuks, Chiefs were looking to close the gap to just two points on the top three.

Then Eleazar Rodgers appeared off the bench. Minutes later, Johnson was celebrating a first Dikwena win over Chiefs in NINE YEARS. A stunning turnabout nearly left the verbose Steve Komphela speechless.

But not quite. After suffering just his SECOND league defeat all season, Komphela said: “When you look at the chances we had, this should not have happened.

“Results are all that matters. This was about concentration, a lack of ruthlessness, mentality. Their goalkeeper was Man of the Match again. That says it all.”

His rival Johnson could hardly believe it: “Kaizer Chiefs were unlucky. I gave Rodgers a chance and God was on my side.”

Rodgers, a Cape Town lad back playing on his home ground, laughed: "I've been out of the team for two games. Coach made me sit down after I'd warmed up, then I went on and did the business. I'm just so happy to do this here, to get three points for the coach."

The pressure on Komphela is huge, though he remains a lot more secure than his Soweto rival Eric Tinkler after Orlando Pirates lost to Jomo Cosmos. Steve still has a two-pronged problem: how to overhaul Wits and Mamelodi Sundowns, both convincing winners over the weekend.

On Friday night, the irony was obvious. James Keene, the English journeyman who trialled with Chiefs a year ago, produced a goal-poacher’s hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Polokwane City. Stuart Baxter recommended a contract for Keene, but Chiefs Football Manager Bobby Motaung failed to act.

Baxter, who left Chiefs after their record-breaking title triumph last season, recommended Keene to Gavin Hunt, and with four goals in three games, he has made an immediate impact.

Pitso Mosimane, unbeaten in 20 with Masandawana, put another nail in Gordon Igesund’s SuperSport United coffin to maintain his side’s place at the top of the table.

Komphela’s men may have been diligent with the woodwork lessons at Cape Town and they were ultimately Rodgered but their challenge remains significant. The fact that Camaldine Abraw’s slightly fortunate header takes him to TWO this season (half of Keene’s tally) highlights the problems Chiefs have in putting away weaker opposition.

Though they have depth and talent - Willard Katsande, Itumeleng Khune and Siyanda Xulu are quite a non-starting trio - Chiefs struggle to score goals, unlike Wits and Sundowns.

The social networks were abuzz when Abraw scored on Sunday without the need for a penalty or a helpful referee … but their failure to add a killer second goal was always going to result in nails being bitten.

The truth is, Bobby Motaung’s failure to sign Keene when he promised Baxter he would will haunt him for the second half of the season.

The final words from Komphela: “What can I do about missed chances? How can I change it?” There’s an obvious answer. Sign a striker who knows where the goal is.

Baxter to the future: why champions Kaizer Chiefs should consider doing a Sir Alex Ferguson

Cup-lifting: Chiefs have had the upper hand this season

IF Kaizer Chiefs were to do the unthinkable and LOSE 1-0 to SuperSport United tomorrow night, the PSL title would still be in the balance.

Then, IF the mighty AmaKhosi were to lose 1-0 to AmaTuks on Saturday, and IF Platinum Stars crush SuperSport by say, 9-0 in their final League game, the side from Phokeng would actually lift the title by a single goal.

Those aren’t just three mighty improbable IFS. In footballing teams, for all three of those results to come to pass is, of course, impossible.

The truth is, Stuart Baxter has achieved what no other foreign coach has managed in the history of the PSL. The man from Wolverhampton has won the league title at his first attempt.

It hasn’t always been pretty, it’s had a lot to do with the failure of his rivals – Roger de Sa’s Orlando Pirates have been mis-firing since the African Cup of Nations (when Ironman Siya Sangweni got injured) and Cavin Johnson’s  Stars somehow contrived to lose to 2-1 to Golden Arrows on Saturday.

No doubt, in his title-winning speech tonight, Baxter will mention “transitions” and “pride” before finally being able to write the words “championship” on his much-debated CV.

Good on him. Baxter arrived to replace the no-nonsense Vladimir Vermecovic after a brief spell where the AmaKhosi were coached by a bunch of trusted former players.

Few expected the former Bafana coach to achieve what Chiefs haven’t since 2005. But the signings of Tower Mathoho and Morgan Gould – between injuries – certainly helped. Bernard Parker’s burst of four goals in the opening game against AmaZulu saw him and his side stay ahead of the bunch all season.

But the unquestionable star of the AmaKhosi’s reclaiming of this lady Gloria was one Itumeleng Khune. The One. Consistently near-perfect in his shot-stopping and distribution, the Bafana goalkeeper starred for his nation in Afcon and – apart from a Vampire-like fear of crosses and a couple of glitches against Ajax Cape Town down the closing stretch – he has been responsible for the riiiiiiise of the Zebras.

When Khune went AWOL for much of last season, the damage was always apparent.

For the crocodiles from the North West there can be only a toothless smile of “what might have been” as Johnson’s Dikwena finish closest in the League and accept extra-time elimination from the Nedbank Cup at the semi-final hurdle against Gavin Hunt’s stubborn SSU.

It’s Orlando Pirates who must harbour the deeper sense of grievance. Shock defeats against Chippa-Choppa United and Mamelodi Sundowns after the “Drawlando” stretch of six stalemates leaves coach Roger de Sa with the African Champions League as his only, distant hope.

Judging from the SMSes that fly between us, I’d say Roger is only a step short of the Sea Robbers’ plank. Shakes Mashaba is touting himself as a replacement, but I suspect Irvin Khoza is thinking big with former AFCON winners Herve Renard of Zambia and Nigeria’s flighty Steve Keshi on a long short list.

Manchester United fans were signing “We’ve got the title back, and Mancini’s got the sack” against Swansea on Sunday. Chiefs fans might be excused for inserting De Sa’s name in to that catchy little number tomorrow night. As far as he knows, Roger remains employed, insisting: "I've got a three-year contract, you can see it if you want."

So after their inevitable crowning at Polokwane or Mbombela this week, the Zebras move on to the double, where the Hunt – it’s always him – stands against the mighty AmaKhosi in the Nedbank Cup final on May 25.

Few doubt Chiefs, and their patient following of a reputed 15million, are serious favourites to add the pre-eminent knock-out trophy to their league title. And for that Baxter – and Khune – must take the plaudits.

Unexpected? A little. Deserved? Yes, though they needed a little prompting from their rivals.

The question now is: can Baxter build a legacy, a tradition? Like Sir Alex at United, Chiefs deserve – need – a long-running coach. One who can pull the club together from bottom to top.

Is Baxter that man? Will De Sa and the rapidly rising Pitso Mosimane at Mamelodi Sundowns get the chance to do the same with a full season in charge? We'll soon find out. 

A story similar to this will appear as my "Neal and Pray" column in The New Age tomorrow.

Giants beware: Platinum-enriched Stars go to the top of the Q

First class coach: Cavin Johnson of Platinum Stars

On a weekend where Roger de Sa closed gaps and Stuart Baxter wore gags, there is only one coach more newsworthy. Cavin Johnson of Platinum Stars.
 

I first heard about his current club, shock winners of the R1.5m Q2 bonus on Sunday, back in 2009. I wondered when they’d start to hit the peaks then.
 

As an Evening Standard journalist over from London covering the England v Proteas cricket tour, I’d taken a couple of days off to track down England’s under-construction Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus somewhere between Boshoek and Rustenburg, not far from Sun City.
 

Luck rather than judgement led to me to a crumbling hotel opposite the magnificent Kedar Lodge on a small backroad off the N4. And there, I found the roots of the current successful but generally unfashionable Dikwena.
 

Amid the frantic building before the World Cup, I unearthed a chap called Martin Becker, a former St Stithians boy who worked – with some gusto – for King Leruo, otherwise known as Kgosi Leruo Tshekedi Molotlegi (born in 1968, ruler since 2000), the 36th monarch of the Royal Bafokeng Nation.
 

 A sporty former Hilton College victor ludorum in the 1980s, Leruo is President of the Mineral Rights Association of Indigenous People of South Africa, has a degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from Natal University and is an Honorary Colonel in the South African Air Force.
 

His “first contact” Becker, often referring to the Bafokeng people as “we” and “our”, explained how King Leruo had utilised the mineral rights of the platinum-rich soil surrounding us to ease his way on to the local foreign mining boards, earning huge dividends and chunks of foreign companies. His predecessors had simply taken a share of the profits.
 

And as the World Cup approached and visits over the next six months continued, I learned how the wily monarch, whose great-grandfather had signed future rights to his land on the advice of a top-hatted bloke called Paul Kruger, had funded not just the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace stadium but had also attracted the Leopards rugby team and the local footballing Crocodiles, the Dikwena.
 

That’s not all he does of course. He also provides a hot meal every day for every school child in his 14,000 square kilometre kingdom and provides them with one of five sporting activities every day. Though mining has had it’s troubles locally with migrant labour, the Phokeng people enjoy the benefits of living on platinum-soaked land.
 

Becker showed me a 35-year plan which pointed the way ahead for the kingdom, with the newly-built sports campus turned in to a High Performance Centre to rival Pretoria and Potchefstroom, high school matriculants outperforming all rivals and, incredibly, even plans for a future Olympic games.

And in the middle of this mighty platinum-enriched portfolio? The team once known as Khakhu Fast XI, an amateur outfit formed in 1937 170km north-east of Polokwane, then Pietersburg.
 

In 1998, owner Joseph “Tycoon” Mapfulagasha took the team 30 km south to Mapate and they became the Silver Stars. At the turn of the century, the Silver Stars forged a link with the old white club Highlands Park with Larry Brookstone purchasing half the club.
 

After four years in the National First Division, Silver Stars were promoted to the PSL in 2003–04 ending 11^th, 7th and 5th in their first three seasons in South Africa’s top flight.
 

And that’s where King Leruo stepped in. In 2006, the Royal Bafokeng Nation signed a sponsorship deal with Silver Stars and the club moved home from Peter Mokabe in Polokwane to the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace.
 

That season, they beat Ajax Cape Town 3–1 in the first Telkom Knockout league cup final an finished second in the PSL. King Leruo promptly bought 51 percent fo the shares and changed the club’s name to Platinum Stars.
 

In 2008, Platinum Stars became the first South African side to beat the Egypt’s continental giants Al Ahly, though their 2-1 home leg triumph in the African Champions League was overturned in Cairo.
 

That season, they finished 10^th in the PSL, 13th in 2008–09 and 14th in 2009–10. The Royal Bafokeng Nation brought the rest of the club’s shares from Brookstone and Mapfulagasha in November 2008, and moved training and administration from Modderfontein Sports Club in Johannesburg to the sparkling Bafokeng Sports Campus.
 

Head coach Owen de Gama came and went amid considerable fuss and the club turned to little-known former Mamelodi Sundowns assistant coach Johnson this season – and Dikwena have hardly looked back.
 

The Q2-clinching 1-0 win against Gavin Hunt’s hardy SuperSport on Saturday was their ninth win in ten and they are now just one point behind overall PSL leaders Kaizer Chiefs.

Johnson insists: "I think it's still early to start thinking about the title, we are building for the future, a trophy would be a bonus.
 

"Our main objective is to bring more bums on seats at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium and the only way to do that is to play exciting football. This is what we are currently doing, trying to bring in more supporters."
 

If he carries on the way he is, Johnson may just manage that. With a little help from King Leruo and the Platinum-enriched Bafokeng.

A SHORTENED VERSION OF THIS STORY APPEARED AS MY NEAL AND PRAY COLUMN IN THE NEW AGE NEWSPAPER IN SOUTH AFRICA THIS MORNING. See www.thenewage.co.za.