The preseason games I have watched so far have given me a glimmer of hope going into the new season. SuperSport United held their own against the more fancied English Premiership side, Manchester City, and walked away with an impressive 2-0 win.
Without reading too much into the game, you've got to admit that Cavin Johnson's team will be a force to be reckoned with in the new campaign, if the early signs are anything to go by. Having said that, they will be hoping for better fortunes going into the season compared to AmaZulu last season. The KZN-based side must have had even Sir Alex Ferguson fooled by what to expect from them in the new season when they narrowly lost 1-0 to his Manchester United. Fast forward to their first league game: AmaZulu 0 -6 Kaizer Chiefs! The rest is in the history books.
A quick glance to the season that was, I must admit that there wasn't much to write home about! To me, the 2012/13 season was certainly one of the few seasons that failed to live up to the PSL's billing of being one of the top 10 leagues in the world.
Of course, for the multitudes of Kaizer Chiefs supporters this was one of the best seasons. For Bloemfontein Celtic and Platinum Stars supporters, this was a season to remember. Steve and Clive Barker and their charges deserve a pat on the back for their top eight finish under trying circumstances, respectively, while the less said about Chippa United's chopping and changing, which ultimately lead to their demise, the better.
Chiefs won their first league title since 2004/05, together with the Nedbank Cup, and played some of the best and consistent football we've seen from Naturena since Ted Dumitru's era. In fact they should have done more than just a double, looking at how average some of their competitors were this past season. They were undoubtedly the team to watch and thanks to Stuart Baxter and Doctor Khumalo, who lead the club's revolution. The management also ventured into the market wisely. They dished out beautiful, entertaining and winning brand of football week in week out. Chiefs took full advantage of the league's poor standard and they have to be commended for that.
Celtic finally appeased their vociferous and loyal supporters with the Telkom Knockout. Platinum Stars had their best season since they were renamed, finishing second on the log, and enjoyed their longest cup run by reaching the semi-finals of the Nedbank Cup, before losing to SuperSport who eventually lost to Chiefs in the final. I wish I could also mention Maluti EFT College for what is sure to be the greatest moment of their careers so far, humiliating then treble defending champions, Orlando Pirates, in the Nedbank Cup, but just like I disapproved of Baroka FC, Pretoria University and FC Cape Town's beating of Kaizer Chiefs, I'm not going to accept lower division unknowns embarrassing one of the biggest teams in the country. By Pirates and Chiefs' class and standards, losing to lower ranked teams in official cup competitions is unacceptable and should come with serious ramifications.
SuperSport United win a paltry eight league games, drew an unbelievable 17 times, but still managed to finish sixth on the log standings. You do your math. A star-studded Mamelodi Sundowns finishing 10th, with just nine wins? Nine out of 30 games! They won only one more game than relegation threatened Golden Arrows and you wonder why there have been very few and far in between calls from Gordon Igesund to Chloorkop recently. This is the same team that won 14 games the previous season.
Then there's Pirates and their horrendous season! Forget about the two-legged MTN8 semi-final loss to SuperSport United. How do you explain the fact that they surrendered a healthy 3-1 lead against Celtic in the Telkom Knockout quarterfinals with only two minutes left to full time, and eventually lost the game in the penalty shoot-out?
Despite Chiefs' successful campaign, Baxter and his technical team can't be happy with the team's failure to reach the 60 point mark when they were sitting comfortably on 55 with four games to spare towards the end. A closer look at the statistics at the time, will tell you anything could've happened after their slip ups, but how those in tow failed to capitalise is still a mystery. Quite frankly, Chiefs took full advantage of the poor standard of football we were exposed to this past season by most teams.
Here's to hoping for a better 2013/14 because we deserve better!
By Vuyani Joni
Follow Vuyani on Twitter: @VeeJay14?
