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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Kaizer Chiefs defender, Thomas Sweswe, is backing his old club to win the South African Premiership title on Super Saturday this afternoon.
Either the Amakhosi, or defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns, will be crowned champions today.
Chiefs are chasing their first league title, in five years, while the Brazilians have emerged as the dominant side in the country.
The Amakhosi are South African’s most-supported football club and, like Zimbabwe’s Dynamos, are known as the Glamour Boys.
Chiefs host Baroka at the Bidvest Stadium while Sundowns entertain Black Leopards in a thrilling last day of the Absa Premiership race.
Sweswe has urged the Amakhosi players, who include Warriors talisman, Khama Billiat, to be calm.
Former Zimbabwe captain, Willard Katsande, is also a key member of the Chiefs family.
Sweswe, who played for Chiefs between 2009 and 2012, believes after a five-year dry spell, the pressure would be on Chiefs more than the Brazilians.
The centreback was part of a huge Zimbabwean family at the Amakhosi, during that time, including midfielder Tinashe Nengomasha, Warriors skipper Knowledge Musona and Zhaimu Jambo.
“The players just need to be calm and treat this game as a World Cup final and, hopefully, the big players will come to the party and help other players to calm themselves,’’ he said.
“It’s in our hands now, it’s for us to lose, let’s make the chairman (Kaizer Motaung), the fans and our families happy by winning this trophy for them.’’
The former DeMbare centreback reckons a game of this magnitude will have the players under immense pressure.
“It’s not easy playing for Chiefs, every game that you play at Chiefs, there is always pressure because everyone wants to beat the best team in South Africa,’’ he said.
“So, l urge the boys to play their normal game and have fun.’’
Sweswe, who is now secretary-general for Footballers Union of Zimbabwe, says winning a major trophy with Chiefs is every player’s dream.
“I didn’t win the league with Chiefs but we finished as runners-up twice and won a couple of trophies,’’ he said.
“Those are moments that I will always cherish for the rest of my life.”
Sweswe still remembers the match rituals during such games.
“I remember when playing in such a pressure game, with all the players fit and ready for selection, my roommate was Nengomasha,’’ he said.
“We would always cheer up each other, preparing ourselves mentally because we knew how it waslike playing for a big club like Kaizer Chiefs.
“In the evening, while in camp, we would pray for divine intervention always and keeping each other on our toes, reminding each other of what was needed in these kind of pressure games.’’
Billit, who ended his goal drought on Wednesday night, is expected to again lead the attack.
Kaizer Chiefs coach, Ernest Middendorp, told the club’s media crew the team with the most fighting spirit will lift the trophy.
“It’s a very competitive last matchday — we have Baroka in position 15, and Sundowns have to compete with Black Leopards, who are one point above of our opponent Baroka.
“Both teams are sitting on position 14 and 15, and cannot just go into the game and give it away or take it easy.
“We will see, on both locations, that the fighting spirit in the respective matches will probably decide what (will come out) at the end of the day.’’
Chiefs have a +21 goal difference to Sundowns’ +18.
Sundowns coach, Pitso Mosimane, said their objective was to give everything they have against Leopards, irrespective of what happens elsewhere.
“We need to win our last match in the league and bow out like competitors and credible people,” he told reporters.
“You have to give it to Chiefs. I mean they have won nothing for the past five or six years.
“They are a big team and they deserve something, to be honest and they fought for it.
“So‚ it’s okay because you can’t win everything but we are fighting.
“We made the semi-final stage of the MTN8‚ won the Telkom Knockout and made the final of Nedbank Cup and now it’s like we have made the final of the league.
“That shows that we are a team of substance and we are credible.
“I think you know how many games we have played now; you can calculate the number of games we have played.
“We have to be thankful but we are going to do our best in our last league match against Leopards and we will leave our skin on the pitch.”
Online Reporter