Marked for Kermit Mkhize
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Jan 2033
Kaizer Chiefs make home a hard place to visit
19 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match1 Jan 2033
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Golden Arrows, and it could have been more.
Match3 Jan 2033
50 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings3 Jan 2033
Two goals and a mark of 9.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings3 Jan 2033
A brace, and Jody Ah Shene takes the afternoon — 8.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jody Ah Shene provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad3 Jan 2033
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Kaizer Chiefs have had the benefit of it.
Player ratings3 Jan 2033
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.01, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market3 Jan 2033
Kermit Mkhize hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaizer Chiefs can pretend not to have heard.
Match1 Jan 2033
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Oct 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Van Wyk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad11 Oct 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ronwen Modiba and Kaizer Chiefs agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
Baron Ochieng knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Baron Ochieng trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad11 Oct 2032
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2032
University of Pretoria next, and one man in the Kaizer Chiefs dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market11 Oct 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
Kermit Mkhize gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kermit Mkhize is on it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Sep 2032
A 2‑1 win over Jomo Cosmos, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
Mandla Khune could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.69
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.69, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Match8 Sep 2032
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 96th minute. Jomo Cosmos will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Match11 Sep 2032
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
No sign of nerves from Kermit Mkhize at 20 — 8.20
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kermit Mkhize did not need any: 8.20, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market13 Sep 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market13 Sep 2032
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
A first appearance Sifiso Williams will want to forget — 5.72
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.72, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Match11 Sep 2032
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Sep 2032
Kermit Mkhize hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaizer Chiefs can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2032
Kaizer Chiefs close the window on a squad of their own making
18 in and 23 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Asanele Velebayi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Antonio Van Wyk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad6 Sep 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thapelo Ngcongo commits to Kaizer Chiefs for another 3 years.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Kaizer Chiefs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad6 Sep 2032
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kaizer Chiefs are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout6 Sep 2032
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market6 Sep 2032
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match6 Mar 2032
Jomo Cosmos will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Kaizer Chiefs were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match6 Mar 2032
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Kaizer Chiefs have 6 straight wins of it.
The dugout8 Mar 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market8 Mar 2032
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Kaizer Chiefs heard it as anything else.
Squad8 Mar 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bradley Cross and Kaizer Chiefs agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Asanele Velebayi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings8 Mar 2032
A goal and an assist for Percy Mabunda — 7.98
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.98 beside his name.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Defences have started doubling up on Asanele Velebayi
9 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Looking ahead8 Mar 2032
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Kaizer Chiefs will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
In brief
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Asanele Velebayi at his very best
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Squad
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict