fIn the Premier Soccer League (PSL), the Soweto Derby between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs is always hotly anticipated. It's always set to be a tight contest. These two have a storied history together.
Also Read: The Soweto Derby
That couldn't be further than the truth yesterday as Pirates outmuscled Chiefs to a comfortable 3-0 away win. This has caused anger among fans and those associated with the Chiefs.
Both the Glamour Boys and the Sea Robbers came into Saturday's game desperate for maximum points after recent back-to-back losses. While the Ghost needed victory to make it five PSL wins in a row; their hosts wanted to ensure they remain in contention by claiming three points to keep alive their dream of ending the season with silverware.
Kaizer Chiefs suffered an embarrassing 3-0 loss against Orlando Pirates in the PSL outing staged at the FNB Stadium on Saturday.
It took the Buccaneers just five minutes to score their first goal when Deon Hotto found Tshepang Moremi on the edge of the box. The latter took a shot that was deflected by Flavio Silva past Bruce Bvuma.
Relebohile Mofokeng, who played in the No. 10 role, then picked Oswin Appollis in the 39th minute and the former Polokwane City man beat Bvuma, once again, to make it 2-0.
The third goal for the Buccaneers was scored by substitute, Evidence Makgopa, who headed in Moremi's cross in the 79th minute to ensure his team went top of the table with 41 points, three more than second-placed Mamelodi Sundowns. Chiefs are trailing Pirates by 11 points in fifth place.
Here are the reactions from the fans:
"Orlando Pirates started the game like a house on fire. As for us, Kaizer Chiefs, we still looked like a frozen chicken" - Koketso.
"Trusting Kaizer Chiefs to fight on your behalf is a criminal offence. They can't be trusted" - Nego Mulalo.
"We don’t have coaches here. We have a natural left back who plays better, who proved on derby before that he’s the best, but we play someone out of his position and expect him to do better" - Fora Sesh.
Goalkeeper, Brandon Petersen, was a shock omission from the Kaizer Chiefs matchday team as Amakhosi fell to a 3-0 defeat by Orlando Pirates in a Soweto Derby showdown on Saturday.
Bruce Bvuma was picked to start in goal in place of Petersen, as Fiacre Ntwari sat on the bench as the substitute goalkeeper. It proved to be a difficult afternoon for Bvuma as he had to retrieve the ball from the back of the net three times.
"Chiefs welcome back several players from injury, though they will have to cope with the absence of captain and goalkeeper, Brandon Petersen, who underwent emergency surgery this week," Chiefs announced in a statement.
"He is expected to return after recovery. Bruce Bvuma steps in for his fourth Soweto Derby appearance."
Chiefs co-coach, Cedric Kaze, admitted his side didn't come to the party, leading to the big defeat.
"I believe that the opponents deserve the win; we were nowhere near them. The first four, five goals we conceded a goal on the short corner, that maybe took a toll on how we wanted to start the game," Chiefs co-coach Cedric Kaze said in his post-match interview.
"I feel like in the second half, in the half we came with better intentions, with better ideas, as well as the opponents used tricks in the first 15 minutes, every minute falling and taking our energy down too. After that, the third goal, Miguel is out, we are a man down, and we don’t manage the moment well."
"It’s a big disappointment, but we still have 13 games to go. We need to pick our heads up. It’s a very difficult pill to swallow, but we need to swallow it and go back to the training field to work more," he concluded.
The Soweto giants have come under growing criticism for their lack of cutting edge in front of goal. Much of the scrutiny has been aimed at both the forwards and midfielders, whose struggles to convert chances have raised concern. There are now fears that the continued bluntness in attack could derail their campaign and leave them empty-handed at the end of the season.
Kaizer Chiefs have scored five goals in as many matches since they resumed competitive football in January after the 2025 AFCON break. Their bluntness in front of goal came to a head last Wednesday when they were eliminated from the Nedbank Cup by Stellenbosch following a 2-1 defeat.
Before that game, they had won four straight matches, posting 1-0 wins, and to some, it was only a matter of time before their attacking frailties showed.
Former Amakhosi coach, Sergio dos Santos, has explained why he thinks Amakhosi are struggling for more goals and sees some selfishness in their players.
"The problem with Chiefs is they miss chances, and you can't miss chances like that, you can't," said Dos Santos. "It's been the story of Kaizer Chiefs this season where one player breaks through and gets an opportunity to square the ball to his free-running teammate to score, and what does he do, he tries to score from an impossible angle."
Despite Chiefs going for the AFCON break with their problems upfront already apparent, the club did not go into the transfer market to try and fix their issues.
For a team currently having eight forwards in the first team, the Soweto giants might've felt they just needed to improve the men they already have to get it right upfront.
That might have come to bite them as they risk finishing the season empty-handed after Bowing out of the Nedbank Cup. They are only left with the PsSL title to play for this season.
"There’s few players in this Kaizer Chiefs team who wants to be heroes, they don't want to be the person who made an assist to somebody else."
For the last couple of seasons, the Soweto giants have been struggling to get it right in the final third, explaining the three strikers that were brought on board in the off-season transfer window. Despite strengthening the attacking department, the Glamour Boys have been missing big chances that could have made the team more dangerous.
Kaizer Chiefs signed Khanyisa Mayo, Flavio Silva and Etiosa Ighodaro at the beginning of the season, hoping to solve their problems in front of the goal.
However, 27 matches later, the Glamour Boys have scored just 35 goals across all competitions.
Their traditional rivals, Orlando Pirates, have found the back of the net 64 times in 31 outings, while Mamelodi Sundowns scored 57 goals in 30 assignments.
When asked about their struggles in front of the goal, Amakhosi co-coach, Khalil Ben Youssef, wasn't friendly with his response, insisting it is not the technical team's fault that players missed chances.
"Did you think that being a football coach is an easy job? If it were easy, anyone could have the job, any team could score, and any team could win; that's the difficulty in football," the 37-year-old said in a pre-match interview.
"How you beat teams, that you can defend and concede goals, and then you make players score and create opportunities to score. For us, the most important thing is the performance of the team. When you perform and you create opportunities, that's our job.
“If it is like you say that it's our job, it's not easy like that. Anyone can do the job; the solution is to continue to work in training sessions. If you have another solution, advise us. If you create an opportunity and you miss your chance, what can you do?" he added.
In the CAF Confederation Cup, Chiefs were beaten to the quarter-final slot by Al Masry, who had a better goal difference, which was a blow to the team.
"I think it was a disappointing result. We went to Egypt to come back with a qualification. Unfortunately, we are the only team that reached 10 points in all the groups in CAF [Confederation Cup] or [CAF] Champions League [but never made the knockout phase],” he continued.
"We are out of the competition, but for us, we have to learn. We have to learn the importance of how many goals we score and how many goals we concede because we are out of the competition, either because we didn't score many goals or we didn't concede less on goals."
"So, now it's done, we are back in the PSL, we have to continue to fight," Ben Youssef concluded.
Orlando Pirates’ coach, Abdeslam Ouaddou, said he was proud with the way his team overcame rivals Kaizer Chiefs 3-0 in their Betway Premiership clash on Saturday.
Speaking after the game, Ouaddou explained how his team prepared for the match by holding a number of team meetings focused on improving their mental strength.
"We spoke to the players in many meetings during the week to try and manage their emotions,” Ouaddou explained in the Citizen. “We knew that for most of them, it was their first derby. It was important to work with them mentally."
"We didn’t want them to play the game before, but we wanted them to be calm and deliver. When you have pressure that puts in light all your qualities."
"We made a lot of WhatsApp this week, showing the positive videos and all the great goals that they scored and games they achieved, including under Jose Riveiro and previous coaches," Ouaddou added.
"We tried to create a narrative and story, to make this event easier mentally. It was a workshop for us because you can see on the bench that the technical staff was very calm – I think that was the first game that happened."
"I am proud of them. We have to build on that kind of performance. So, it was a reference performance. So, we have to build on that for the rest of the season," he said.
As a Pirates fan, I'm thrilled with the win. However, I I wasn't expecting such a big scoreline as yesterday. I might be a bit naive but I think people are making a big deal out of nothing.
Losses do occur and not everyone will be happy about it. A Derby defeat can be heartbreaking but it's important to learn from the errors made and remedy them in time for the next game.
Every team is bound to have an issue on the pitch. Some might be poor at defending while others, like Chiefs, might have trouble up front. It was by their own hands that they didn't try to fix this in the recent transfer window.
It's vital that when such a window opens, clubs should analyse areas where they are struggling and either loan or buy players to address those issu/s.