Chippa out for league ‘double’ over Chiefs

Chippa United coach Vladislav Heric is faced with yet another tough match this weekend when his team take on Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs in a Premier Soccer League fixture at FNB Stadium today.

The Chilli Boys had only two days to recover from Wednesday night’s 2-0 defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns.

Heric said Chippa needed to come out with a positive result from this match in order to ease some of the pressure ahead of their next fixture, which is against Ajax Cape Town. Beating Amakhosi will not be an easy prospect as Chiefs are also banking on coming away with the three points as they mount a challenge for the Premier Soccer League title.

Chiefs are third on the log, just six points behind arch-rivals Orlando Pirates and trail log leaders Sundowns by seven points.

It was Chippa United who emerged victorious in the teams’ last league clash in December, when Heric’s side beat the “Glamour Boys” 1-0 at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Heric said he would not be banking on previous results against Chiefs ahead of this crucial clash.

“I like history. History you can frame it and put it on the wall, but history does not determine the next game. It all depends on your readiness and how you approach the game,” Heric said.

“Sometimes history can even count against you, thinking, because we beat them last time, we will beat them again.

“We have to approach our players and try to have them ready and hungrier to win and be more motivated to get the points. Otherwise we are not going to get anything out of the game,” Heric added. Despite their loss to the “Brazilians” midweek, Heric applauded his charges’ fighting spirit towards the end of the game, even though they were trailing 2-0 at the time.

“You could see against Sundowns the players did follow the game plan and we did play good football . . . especially in the last 10 minutes we did not give up. After 2-0 we tried to at least score one goal.

“We fought and we tried to get something out of this game. So with that kind of character, maybe that is the starting point for our game [today].”