This Saturday will be marked as one of South Africa’s biggest sporting weekends as both the Currie Cup final and the biggest football derby in the country will be taking place almost concurrently. So if you’ll be catching the action at the comfort of your home, you will be able to switch between TV channels.

Whenever a Soweto derby takes place, the South African football fraternity is brought to a stand-still, although some have argued that this historical showpiece had lost its sting in recent years, but it’s the rivalry between these two sides that make it interesting. Here it’s never about a mere three points for the winners, but more about pride: who’s the best team in Soweto.

This will be a 150^th meeting between the Soweto giants, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs and it will be staged at one of the country’s oldest stadiums, Orlando Stadium.

The Pitch – Orlando Stadium
Situated in the heart of Soweto, one would consider it the automatic choice to host a match of the derby’s magnitude. But the newly revamped stadium has countless problems and one of them will play a big part in the outcome of the game on Saturday. I’m talking about the state of the stadium’s pitch, it’s said that the grass is in such a bad condition the stadium management is considering re-doing it by planting new grass. Teams such as Kaizer Chiefs and Ajax Cape Town have recently openly complained about the conditions.

Another concerning but not so worrying factor is the size of the stadium. It’s accommodates only 40 000 supporters, which also explains why tickets to the game were sold out by Tuesday.

The Teams
Orlando Pirates – The Buccaneers had of their best starts of the season ever after playing 9 games unbeaten and having not conceded even one goal. But once appoint the time, Gameweek 10 to be exact, the Sea Robbers met the on-form Bidvest Wits who handed them their first defeat of the season, and like they say, the rest is history. It’s been downhill ever since for the Buccaneers and their recent loss to Amazulu didn’t do much good for the players morale coming into the derby.

Benson Mhlongo
To add to their woes, Pirates lost their midfield stalwart in Benson “Mjomane” Mhlongo who dislocated his knee while engaging in tackle during their game against AmaZulu. This is of course a big blow to Ruud Krol and his preparations, he’ll have to bring in a replacement in a very critical position, the centre of midfield.

Kaizer Chiefs – Amakhosi, who fired the much-animated Muhsin Ertugral at the end of last season, have up to now been having what one calls rollercoaster ride this season. One week there are blowing hot, the next their blowing cold. The new coach has been very straight with the media and fans in saying that his team could be playing the best football had the player been tactically disciplined. His claim of recent has been that his players don’t listen to instructions and the outburst when he substituted Abia Nale on Wednesday evening clearly proved the coaches frustration. In fact testimony to what the coach has been complaining about was Wednesday man of the match, Reneilwe Letsholonyane who and I quote said: “We’ve not been listening to the coaches instructions recently and today we did what he told us and got the results”.

The Chiefs contingent is definitely high in confidence, however one of Wednesday’s goal scorers, Kaizer Motaung jnr suffered a minor injury on his right foot and may be ruled out of Saturdays game. But they have Nkosinathi Nhleko, Knowledge Musona and Jose Torrealba who all started on the bench on Wednesday. Of course starting with Kaizer jnr. would be a positive as the striker’s morale was boosted with the fact that he scored the club’s 600^th league goal, which is a feat many are yet to achieve in South African football.

Abia Nale
No doubt, Nale is one of Chiefs’ best forwards, and since the incident on Wednesday where the player retaliated to the coach’s brief lashing by crying and then heading to the change room for an early shower, we are not sure if the coach will keep him in the starting eleven this Saturday. We also don’t know if the player has overcome his emotions. A lot more than his pride is at stake here, so for the goodness of the team, I hope Nale and the coach have sorted out their issues. With that said I still maintain Nale acted like a crybaby and the coach had every right to give him a lashing after he failed to do what he was told at half time.

Verdict:
Chiefs come in the game high in confidence, as they believe that they’ve turned the corned with the players finally starting to dance to the coach’s tune. No major injuries to interfere with Vlad Vermezovic’s team selection.

Pirates on the other hand, have to worry about an off-form player maker, Teko Modise, stage a makeshift midfield after losing Bafana midfielder Benson Mhlongo, and also they come in this game having lost three games on the trot. This kind of situation can never be good for any team. But as most will tell you, playing in the Soweto Derby is motivation in enough for any player.

Prediction:
On paper, Chiefs have the upper hand, but then again, Chiefs players have the tendency of loosing concentration during the match and they may let Pirates back in the game late in the second half. My instinct tells me Chiefs will win this game but it may end as a draw.

Predicted Score:
Orlando Pirates 2 – 2 Kaizer Chiefs