HAVING head coach Dan “Dance” Malesela back on their bench tonight could turn out one of two ways for Chippa United.
He returns tonight for their must-win Absa Premiership clash with SuperSport United at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium (7.30pm).
Malesela’s return could:
- Act as motivation for the players to double their efforts; or
- Be tough for the players to cope with, and entail new training methods.
Their future could be decided in 90 minutes, after the coach missed three successive matches at the helm of the Chilli Boys due to unexplained “special leave”.
They have now gone four matches without a win and would certainly welcome him back to their bench with two league matches and one cup match to go. But his absence may have created a vacuum in the team and he might find it hard to make them gel.
Chippa also find themselves at the mercy of other teams to survive the chop in their remaining two matches.
Their back-to-back matches against Matsatsantsa a Pitori will be an acid test for the Port Elizabeth side.
However, SuperSport coach Stuart Baxter will have to make do without the services of three trusted soldiers, Reneilwe “Yeye” Letsholonyane, Onismor Bhasera and Thuso Phala.
The coach says his mind is not in two places at the same time, he is focused squarely on his responsibilities as SuperSport mentor and will think about Bafana Bafana later.
“I am still the SuperSport United coach at this moment and until the end of June,” Baxter said after being officially unveiled as new Bafana mentor at Safa House this week.
SuperSport’s Thabo Mnyamane reckons the two matches will be different, even though it will be the same two teams playing.
Said Mnyamane: “It might be the same teams but the result won’t be the same. We want to get maximum points, hoping to get to the six points needed to finish our season well. They are fighting for their lives, they want the three points as much as we do. Both matches are important.”
Despite the league title being out of reach, the striker said they were keeping an eagle eye on the Nedbank Cup, where they face the same team in the semifinals at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium on Saturday.
“We want to successfully defend our Ke Yona title,” he said.
“We want to be the first team to retain the cup but that doesn’t mean we should put pressure on ourselves. We are looking to play in Africa again next season and can’t ignore that winning the cup gets us there,” he said.
