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What you can expect in the Sport section this week:
Tau inches closer to realising EPL dream
Percy Tau could eventually have his wish of playing in the English Premier League (EPL) granted.
The 26-year-old striker has collected valuable points while playing regularly for Belgian giant Club Brugge in Europe’s top club competitions – the Uefa Champions League and Europa League – this season.
This might satisfy the UK work permit requirements for him to turn out for his parent club Brighton and Hove Albion in the EPL next season, provided the Seagulls avoid relegation.
Chiefs see flames
What looked like a promising campaign for Kaizer Chiefs is starting to get their fans worried in their 50th anniversary season.
As things stand, Amakhosi are now left with the Absa Premiership title to fight for this season after their elimination from the Nedbank Cup by Highlands Park on Saturday.
Einer muss sterben in Soweto clash
The sold-out signs prove that fans cannot wait for the next exciting clash of the titans on Saturday.
It has been far too long since we last had such a seemingly balanced Soweto derby – the Orlando Pirates versus Kaizer Chiefs clash could also define the 2019/20 PSL season.
One has to jog the memory to recall when last this nation-gripping match posted so many possibilities.
Can Middendorp preserve his derby record?
Saturday’s game will be the eighth time that Ernst Middendorp has faced Orlando Pirates as Kaizer Chiefs’ coach.
And the 61-year-old is yet to lose in an official Soweto derby across all competitions.
He experienced his first Soweto derby in December 2006 during his first spell with Chiefs, which ran from July 2005 to March 2007.
Downs and Baroka’s date with the underdogs
The first round of the Nedbank Cup has so far recorded two notable upsets in the ongoing edition of the famed Ke Yona competition.
Interestingly, the two giant-slayers, Vaal University of Technology (VUT) and the Hungry Lions will size up against the PSL big boys again today.
The Mavuti Boys, as the university side is known among their followers, have a date with Mamelodi Sundowns in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, and the Lions face Baroka FC in Polokwane.
Both games are taking place this afternoon.
Tim Spirit column: Ja, Pitso’s ‘doing what he has to do’, but it doesn’t make it right
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane justified why his players deliberately picked up yellow cards against Bloemfontein Celtic midweek so they would miss today’s Nedbank Cup match against Vaal University of Technology.
Now that is clever. But this is against the sporting principles and the Fifa Fair Play Code, writes Timothy Molobi.
African sharpshooters on target
Last season, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah made history when they shared the Premier League Golden Boot Award with 22 goals apiece.
Although Jamie Vardy and Sergio Agüero were leading the standings ahead of this weekend’s matches with 17 and 16 goals, respectively, the African sharpshooters are all within striking range.
Aubameyang has scored 15, Salah 14 and Mané 12, with the first two also being the leading marksmen in line for the European Golden Boot Award.
Hanging Judge column: Refs need to man up and deal with erring players and coaches
I don’t think there is any doubt that players and coaches are becoming more disruptive and disrespectful of decisions made by referees if they don’t suit them.
Even if the game has only just started, the protests and complaints flow freely.
Well, it seems that the first country to try to tackle this cancer in our game is Germany, writes Dr Errol Sweeney.
Man City looking for some good news
Real Madrid fans are hoping that Manchester City will play their second-last Champions League match on Wednesday – until 2022, at least.
The Citizens, who have been slapped with a two-year ban by Uefa from the lucrative competition for breaching the financial fair play regulations, travel to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in the Spanish capital for the first leg of their Round of 16 matches.
City, of course, has already announced that they will appeal the ruling and go into the tie against Real Madrid believing they have what it takes to prevail, with both scenarios potentially extending their Champions League run.
Tokyo 2020: Sascoc irks parliament
The sports portfolio committee has accused the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) of disrespecting the parliamentary oversight structure.
This after only six of the 11 Sascoc board members pitched in Parliament on Friday to brief the committee on the progress made regarding the implementation of recommendations of the ministerial committee and preparations for the Olympic Games in Japan.
Tannie Ans turns to prayer for Wayde to go to another Olympics
The return to action by sprinter Wayde van Niekerk this week ended a long wait for the athlete’s comeback and cast his veteran coach Anna Botha back into the spotlight.
No athlete/coach pair has become more identifiable in track and field than Van Niekerk and Botha, who is popularly known as Tannie Ans.
With almost 50 years of coaching experience and though she is turning 79 later this year, Botha has given no hints that she’ll retire anytime soon.
Where will Team SA Olympic medals come from?
Track and field, together with swimming, have traditionally delivered medals for Team SA at the Olympic Games since the country’s readmission to international competition.
This time around, however, the prospects look bleak as there are no guarantees that two great medal winners – Wayde van Niekerk and Caster Semenya – will be at Tokyo 2020.
Without the two megastars, Team SA returned from the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, last year with not a single medal.
Kolbe’s Olympics plan on hold
It appears that Springbok star Cheslin Kolbe’s dream of winning a World Cup and an Olympic medal in fewer than 12 months has been dashed – it has emerged that Kolbe’s international club side Toulon refused a request from the Blitzboks to release him to play in the sevens team.
Kolbe, one of South Africa’s two try-scorers during the World Cup final against England last year, had hoped to run out for the Blitzboks during this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Side Entry column: Why Rassie could be tempted to move to England
A couple of weeks ago, there was a report that SA Rugby director of rugby Rassie Erasmus was in talks with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) to be England head coach.
The story was elegantly denied on the very same day it was published.
While the RFU’s offer would have been tempting on the financial front alone (current England coach Eddie Jones is rumoured to earn R1.5 million a month), there are a lot of reasons that could entice Erasmus to accept it, writes Simnikiwe Xabanisa.
‘Smart’ Montsi bucks the size stereotype
It’s a quality that has come in handy in the diminutive tennis player’s burgeoning career, but harping on about the 17-year-old’s height is probably unfair.
After all, Khololwam Montsi has been blessed with outrageous gifts that have amazed those who’ve watched his career rise and rise.
But the fact is, tennis has become a big man’s game.
At 1.85m tall – Springbok captain Siya Kolisi’s height – Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are on the average side of the modern player.
Montsi cannot be much taller than Proteas batsman Temba Bavuma (he’s stopped checking how tall he is) and weighs in at a middle-distance runneresque 56kg.
But try telling him that it could be a hindrance to the bright future predicted for him.
Using his mind and his stature to beat his rivals, the teenager is proving that dynamite does indeed come in small packages, by Simnikiwe Xabanisa
Women Proteas must step up now
As the Women Proteas begin their quest for a maiden T20 World Cup trophy this afternoon against England in Perth, Australia, they will have only one thing on their minds – execute.
Not in the medieval sense, but in the way they bat, bowl and field.
SA golfer Bezuidenhout climbs global ladder to success
The 25-year-old Christiaan Bezuidenhout’s victory in last week’s Dimension Data Pro-Am at Fancourt Golf Estate in George, Western Cape, propelled him to 48th on the Official World Golf Ranking, and he is now South Africa’s second-highest ranked golfer in the world after Louis Oosthuizen, who is in 17th place.
If Bezuidenhout can stay there until a week before the masters tournament in April, he will tick another box…
Rassie could review SA junior rugby competitions in the near future
The Junior Boks, much like their big brothers, the Springboks, will consider their best players for the World Rugby Under-20 Championship, irrespective of where in the world they are playing.
The tournament takes place from June 28 until July 18 in Italy, with the Junior Boks set to go up against the host nation, England and Fiji in the group phase.
