Based on current evidence, the majority of fans will believe Chippa United’s last two Betway Premiership games of 2025 against Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs will be uphill battles, but their head coach Vusumuzi Vilakazi is confident this will not be the case.
Vilakazi believes his team will rise to the occasion and that those fixtures may facilitate the awakening of the Eastern Cape team’s league challenge.
He feels the Soweto giants’ big brands provide much-needed motivation for his team to do well and thereby lift themselves out of the relegation zone.
Vilakazi said this after their goalless draw against Magesi at Buffalo City Stadium in East London on Tuesday evening.
That draw did not improve their position, as they remain at the bottom of the log with only seven points after 12 matches.
“Those are the two games you need when you are in this situation [relegation threatened].
“The brand of the two teams provides enough motivation to perform on its own for the players.
“When facing Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates as a coach, there’s less you do because players rise to the occasion on their own.
“But we will have to work on the weaknesses we have,” he said.
Chippa will have a two-week window during which they can work on those tactical fragilities.
The Pirates fixture is on November 22 at the Orlando Stadium, followed by the Amakhosi game on December 3 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha.
Both Chiefs and Pirates are in the top four and pressing hard to finish at the top of the table come the first half of the season’s end.
“We will get into specific preparation when we are closer to the game,” Vilakazi said.
In the Magesi game, Chippa dictated the tempo and enjoyed 60% of the possession.
Despite that, they only had six attempts on goal, and of those, only one was on target.
“We are lacking forceful penetrations,” Vilakazi, who was in charge of his second game for the club, said.
“I have said it before that keeping ball possession is not a problem for us.
“We are able to keep it for 90 minutes, but we need to be forceful so we can create scoring opportunities.
“We will work on that.
“We are still a work in progress. I have been at the club for less than 10 days.
“It is a pity the Magesi and AmaZulu games were contested in a short space of time.
“We will have time now in preparing to face our next opponents.
“As I have said before, some things can’t be rectified overnight,” he said.
His counterpart, Magesi head coach John Maduka, bemoaned their offensive challenges.
Their attacking stats were parallel. Magesi had 12 shots. Of those, only two troubled Chippa goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali.
“That is an area we have been struggling in.
“We have been creating chances, but when we get to the final third, where it matters most to finish, we are lacking,” Maduka said.
“If you see our game that we played against Orbit, we had chances in the first half, the same as Chippa, but we didn’t score.
“It has become a problem. But with the coming break, we will try and visit those areas that we have to improve.
“It is very important for us; if we want to win the games, we must be able to defend well, but also we must be able to score goals.”
Daily Dispatch
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