Mninawa Ntloko
8 July 2009
Johannesburg — SUCH is the nature of the domestic premiership pre-season that the unlikeliest matches tend to be played and Bloemfontein can look forward to a rather curious engagement when top-flight club Kaizer Chiefs entertain the Iran national team at Free State Stadium on Saturday.
While ranked at a lofty 58th place on the official Fifa rankings -- some 12 places above Bafana Bafana -- Iran were held to a 1-1 draw at the weekend by a Botswana national team that is not even in the top 100.
With Iran already out of contention for the 2010 World Cup, coach Afshin Ghotbi said yesterday that they had to be grateful for matches like these as he was desperately trying to rebuild for the 2014 global tournament in Brazil.
"We were tired against Botswana and we should be better against Chiefs on Saturday," Ghotbi said, through an interpreter.
The Iran coach explained that the invitation to play in SA was happily accepted some six months ago when the team thought that they still had a chance to qualify for the World Cup.
They decided that they were not going to be too choosy and did not mind playing against a club, happy to grab any chance to get a first- hand look at the facilities in SA a year before the World Cup.
But after failing to qualify, Ghotbi -- who replaced Ali Daei, who was fired a few weeks ago -- decided to come to SA anyway.
"We watched tapes of Chiefs in action in the last few days and I was very impressed by what I saw. They are a very good team and I expect a tough match against a side like this."
New Chiefs coach Vladimir Vermezovic said he was not complaining as this encounter would afford him another opportunity to get a closer look at his charges.
The Serbian has been in charge since last month and said he wanted to adapt quickly ahead of what will be one of the most challenging premiership seasons.
"They might be out of the qualifying race for the World Cup but they should still be strong opponents," the Serbian said.
"I have a young team and this one will be a test. We want to keep improving and we have to see where we are tactically after last week's test in Port Elizabeth."
Vermezovic won his first bit of off-season silverware when Chiefs beat SuperSport United 2-1 in the final of the Eastern Cape Premier Cup at the weekend.
The Serbian got a chance to run the rule over players such as Josta Dladla -- who scored one of the goals in the final -- and newcomers Nkosinathi Nhleko, and his initial verdict was that his new charges are very skilled.
After this weekend's engagement against Iran, Chiefs will take part in the Vodacom Challenge next week where Vermezovic will be introduced to South African football's biggest match -- the Soweto Derby. Chiefs have to battle Soweto rivals Orlando Pirates in the derby in Port Elizabeth on July 23 for the right to face English premiership side Manchester City in the final of the tournament two days later.
It does not get any easier after that as the premiership fixture list in the coming season -- due to get under way at the beginning of next month -- will be taxing on the players as all the teams are expected to have played 24 matches by the time the league goes into its annual Christmas recess in December.
The season will come to an end in February next year in order to give Bafana Bafana coach Joel Natalino Santana time to prepare the national team for the World Cup.
But Vermezovic will do well to know that Chiefs fans will not bother themselves with those minor technicalities as the mass-supported club will still be considered one of the favourites for the league title.
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