The first Soweto derby of the season will be staged at Soccer City this month, writes Mark Gleeson.
This season the two Soweto derbies have been scheduled much later than usual, indeed fixtured in the second part of the season.
Both clubs would have played more than half their league fixtures before they meet each other which is a diversion from the norm and a manipulation of the fixture list to presumably maximise the commercial potential of the rivalry between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.
Theoretically each side should play the other once in a first round of league fixtures before then embarking on the reverse fixtures.
It should be in the same sequence so that the team you played in your opening league games is then the team a club plays in its 16th match of the league season and so on.
But the Premier Soccer League have taken the two derbies out of natural order and slotted them in the second part of the campaign, starting with the first game on 28 February and the return clash two months later on 25 April.
Chiefs host the first game and Pirates the second although both will be played at the cavernous Soccer City where the two protagonists will be hoping for a full house and lucrative pay day at the gate.
The PSL has not explained why the derbies are so late this season but it can be surmised that it has to do with the fact that both teams qualified to compete in African club competitions.
There were few windows to host the derby in the opening half of the season, but with the MTN8, then the African Champions League and African Confederation Cup preliminaries, it was busy.
This was followed by the Carling Knockout and the group stages of the two continental club competitions, which continue through this month.
The PSL could not have foreseen that Pirates would crash in the Champions League and fail to make the group phase, which has lightened their fixture load.
In the greater scheme of things, this might prove a blessing in their bid for a first South African title since 2012.
They can now concentrate on the title race and, for the first time in many seasons, turn the tussle for the league crown into potentially absorbing contest.
The long break since the Carling Knockout final on 6 December, and before the league’s resumption after the Africa Cup of Nations finals, has left fans with an eager appetite for what lies ahead.
Throw in some World Cup fever and the last few months of the season could prove thrilling.
Pirates have handed themselves a really good chance for success this league season after some astute shopping in the pre-season transfer window, snagging more than half a dozen of the country’s most accomplished players.
The likes of Oswin Appollis, Sipho Mbule, Sihle Nduli, Masindi Nemtajela Kamogelo Sebelebele have ensured a more competitive squad and given them a fighting chance of dethroning Sundowns.
They will certainly be heavily fancied to win this month’s derby, even if Chiefs, too, have recruited far better than in previous years, although once again they have managed to include a few duds in their shopping basket.
Chiefs are in the title mix as well despite the early-season crisis with coach Nasreddine Nabi, whose departure came as a great relief to the players.
This month’s clash is the 184th meeting between the two rivals and promises yet another potentially fascinating twist in more than half a century of derby encounters.
