Along with Ted Dumitru, Gordon Igesund has won four championships since the advent of the Premier Soccer League in 1996.
|||With only one of the Absa Premiership title favourites having begun the season on a victorious note, SuperSport United and Orlando Pirates meet at the Peter Mokaba Stadium tonight keen to put down a marker in the championship race.
Both Matsatsantsa a Pitori and the Buccaneers have been installed as championship contenders along with holders Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns – who were both held goalless in their opening matches at the weekend.
It was Gavin Hunt’s Bidvest Wits who justified their billing as potential winners of the 19th instalment of the Premiership when they overcame Ajax Cape Town 2-1 on Saturday night, with Sundowns failing to score at Platinum Stars and Chiefs unable to breach a Chippa United side reduced to 10 men.
Tonight Gordon Igesund begins his quest to become the sole owner of a championship-winning record when he leads SuperSport against a Pirates side that had a fantastic 2-0 win over CS Sfaxien in a CAF Confederations Cup group match on Saturday night.
Along with Ted Dumitru, Igesund has won four championships since the advent of the Premier Soccer League in 1996 and with ‘Ol’ Loud Mouth’ no longer involved in club football the SuperSport coach has a chance to to claim the record alone.
But he faces a tough challenge from the aforementioned four clubs, with Hunt on course to catch up with Dumitru and Igesund should he lead the Clever Boys to their maiden championship triumph.
Both Pirates and SuperSport go into the league encounter on the back of exits from the MTN8.
Yet with Pirates having bounced back with that fantastic win over Sfaxien, Eric Tinkler’s men will probably descend on the Limpopo capital’s arena the more confident of the two sides.
Tinkler, along with Chiefs’ Steve Komphela, are newcomers to the championship contenders billing with the coaches of the other three sides (Igesund, Hunt and Pitso Mosimane of Sundowns) having already tasted league title glory.
But the Pirates man is unlikely to be overawed by the challenge and will be keen to show club chairman Irvin Khoza that he didn’t err in entrusting him with one of local football’s most difficult tasks.
And while he is already doing so in the continental competition it is on the local front that Tinkler will need to also do well.
Pirates will look to start the league challenge on a positive note and to this effect Tinkler will hope Thabo Rakhale and the rest of his team transfer their continental form to the local scene.
Out in Polokwane though, they will find that SuperSport will be a different outfit to the one they saw struggle in pre-season.
Igesund has shown over the years just how great a specialist he is in the league, the Durbanite having won all his four championships with different teams. While he has spoken down his team’s chances, only an inexperienced campaigner will take him for his word.
While tonight’s result will not determine the destination of the title, there can be no denying that nothing sets the tone for a good run than a positive start. - The Star
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