Kaizer Chiefs at last chance saloon to end trophy drought

Kaizer Chiefs are at the last chance saloon to break a drought in silverware extending to seven seasons when they meet TS Galaxy in Saturday’s last-32 Nedbank Cup match at FNB Stadium.

Chiefs were threatening to at least put more pressure on runaway Premier Soccer League (PSL) leaders Mamelodi Sundowns before the bottom fell out of Amakhosi’s league campaign with the outbreak of more than 50 Covid-19 cases at their Naturena headquarters in December.

The club have taken their quest to still play the two fixtures they could not honour to arbitration. But their crippling encounter with the pandemic does appear to have left what was always an outside chance of influencing the title chase adrift.

That leaves the Nedbank Cup for Chiefs to compete for in an effort to win a first trophy since coach Stuart Baxter steered them to a second league and cup double in three years in 2014-2015 in his first stint at the club.

“I think we’ve got to look at the Nedbank Cup as being a target, we’ve got to look at it as being something that we’re in and we have a chance at it,” Baxter said.

Apart from a recovery from their Covid-19 setback, Chiefs used the Christmas and Africa Cup of Nations break to nurse injured players back to form, key among them strikers Samir Nurković and Leonardo Castro.

“This break helped us with getting some injured players back. We are ready to take the games ahead with responsibility and desire,” Castro said. “In the next game I want to show that I still have the hunger and the desire to play and to win for Kaizer Chiefs.

“The Nedbank Cup is an important tournament for us. We have to give our all against Galaxy and continue to the next stage.”

Chiefs’ cup clash against Mpumalanga side Galaxy — the last-placed battlers in the PSL — is easily the spiciest clash of the weekend’s last-32 fixtures.

It is a replay of the 2019 Nedbank final when Galaxy, then National First Division upstarts, became the first team from the second tier to win the season-sending tournament when they shocked Ernst Middendorp’s Chiefs 1-0 at Moses Mabhida Stadium.

Nedbank Cup last-32 fixtures 

Friday:

Uthongathi FC v Summerfield Dynamos (Princess Magogo Stadium, 3pm)

Stellenbosch FC v Baroka FC (Danie Craven Stadium, 6pm)

Saturday:

NC Pros v Mathaithai (GWK Park, 3pm)     

Platinum City Rovers v Sekhukhune United (Olën Park, 3pm)

Royal AM v Cape Town City (Chatsworth Stadium, 3pm)

Sinenkani v Free State Stars (Walter Sisulu University Stadium, 3pm)

Kaizer Chiefs v TS Galaxy (FNB Stadium, 6pm)

Sunday:

Marumo Gallants v Santos (Peter Mokaba Stadium, 3pm)

Black Eagles v Sivutsa (Royal Bafokeng Stadium, 3pm)