Polokwane City, winless after three games, are desperate to arrest their fall from grace at the expense of the vulnerable Kaizer Chiefs who are still smarting from their 2-0 implosion against Royal AM last week.
Polokwane will host Chiefs tomorrow afternoon in a Premiership match at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium. Chiefs are no strangers to the province and visit Polokwane for a third game in 10 days. The Glamour Boys hosted two matches against KwaZulu-Natal teams last week – Richards Bay (Wednesday) and Royal AM (Saturday). Chiefs earned four points from those matches, beating the Natal Rich Boyz 2-1 and drawing 2-2 against Thwihli Thwahla.
Their opponents Polokwane City drew 1-1 against TS Galaxy at home last Sunday but many were in the stands the previous day to watch Chiefs collapse against Royal AM. The Rise and Shine squad would have drawn some inspiration from Chiefs' slump ahead of their clash.
Coach Nasreddine Nabi was hopping mad after the Royal AM game, and it turns out the players were angry to return home to Johannesburg with a point, rather than three. The 20-year-old Chiefs midfielder Wandile Duba said the team wants to make the Polokwane fans happy on Sunday.
"We are frustrated and angry at ourselves because we dropped points when we had to win the game. We should have killed off that game in the first half and kept the ball in the second half," said Duba, who has already scored two goals this season.
"We played well in the first half against Royal AM and I don't know what happened in the second half and we lost two points."
Duba said he wants to be at the forefront of the drive to win the match. “It makes me happy and gives me confidence to score more. The fans should expect more goals from me," said Duba.
"We will win the Polokwane City game because there's no other way of making our fans happy again other than winning this game.
“Polokwane is an aggressive team and plays until the last whistle. They will come at us and give 200% because everyone gets motivated when they come up against Kaizer Chiefs."
Polokwane coach Phuti Mohafe is aware of the challenge ahead and plans to exploit Chiefs’ desperation.
“Chiefs are a serious threat even when you check them when they are not doing well. They will be out to get a win here,” said Mohafe. said.
“They are a serious threat when playing on a transition with lots of long balls. I think it’s a match that we need the most because we know how to play with teams that are playing that way. I think we will do better against them.”
Coach Nabi has urged his players to capitalise on scoring opportunities because failure to do so boosts the confidence levels in the opposition ranks.
"Sometimes you don't score because of ego. If you don't respect football, football doesn't respect you as well," said Nabi.
"We are very, very frustrated about the two points we have lost against Royal AM because we controlled the game from the first to the last minute.
"If you miss too many chances, you give confidence to the opponent. The other frustrating thing is that we failed to defend with three, or four minutes remaining...you need to defend your lead. It's very hard to understand what happened against Royal AM."
Chiefs will welcome back their key defender Inacio Miguel who has completed his two-match suspension.