Why the Telkom KO showdown between Sundowns and Celtic on December 1 HAS to be the Teko Modise final

Cup jinx: Teko Modise, 29, has yet to win a major trophy

AFTER two enthralling semis there is only one way to tag the Telkom Knock-out showdown on December 1 between miraculous Mamelodi Sundowns and blooming Bloemfontein Celtic: it’s the Teko Modise final.

On Saturday night, Msandawana defied their status as the PSL’s worst side this season, holding off Gavin Hunt’s bus-parking, bar-busting SuperSport United 1-0 in Polokwane.

The Peter Mokaba Stadium was treated to a cup tie of the highest order as Johan Neeskens prowled the touchline knowing that, despite his legendary Dutch pedigree, he should have left Chloorkop weeks ago.

After just 15 minutes, the enigmatic Eleazar Rodgers, picked up by Sundowns when Santos were relegated last year, latched on to the end of the improving Anthony Laffor’s cross to score the only goal of the game.

From there on in, it was a case of draw-specialist Hunt – with a win, a loss and eight wins in the PSL – trying to unpark his bus and find a route to an equaliser against relegation-haunted opposition.

It so nearly came in the dying moments with SuperSport hitting the bar and having a penalty appeal turned down, but a relieved Neeskens said afterwards: “I must give my boys a big compliment, I think they deserved it. We saw an exciting game with both teams competitive. They have only lost one game in the league.

“In the second half they put more people upfront, so it was difficult to defend - they were unlucky to hit the crossbar. I think it is a terrific result and it will give everybody a boost.”

The bustling ball of energy which is Hunt was predictably less enthusiastic: “I’m disappointed not to reach the final,” he growled, “Decisions haven’t been going for us lately. We came so close, we should have had a penalty.

“It was an exciting semi-final. But we have to pick ourselves up now and get on with it.”

If Polokwane was exciting, the Charles Mopeli Stadium in Qua-Qua was soon renamed Kwaaa-Kwaaa as local rivals Bloemfontein Celtic took the lead twice in normal time (Letladi Madubanya and sub Lerato Manzini) only for Free State stars to peg them back with two well taken goals from Dove Wome.

In the end, it was the irrepressible Botswana striker Joel Mogorosi who decided the match in extra-time, his long-range header just beaten the out-stretched arms of Zambia’s AFCON winning goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene in the Stars goal.

Mweene, injured when teenagers stoned the Zambia bus after their midweek 1-0 win over Bafana Bafana at Soccer City, said: "I was fit. Luckily I was not too badly hurt. They were only youngsters, but these things should not happen. Thank God it wasn't serious. But I was ready to play and I'm disappointed not to make the final."

With head coach Clinton Larsen banned after his red card against Maritzburg United, Boebie Solomons took the post-match plaudits for Celtic, beaming: “They kept coming back at us but we never gave up. They equalised twice but we always came up with another goal.”

For Stars boss Steve Komphela, the only man in South African football capable of talking Gavin Hunt under the table, it was nearly too much: “I am so disappointed. Football is such a strange game. It makes you so excited.

“My belly was full of tension, it was so full I could burst. So I had to kick a chair to relieve the stress.”

And with Katlego Cambridge Mashego breaking his leg in two places, Komphela said: “Football is like a war, there are casualties. There are no prisoners of war. We will miss him.”

And so to the final on December 1. The venue has yet to be decided but with Charles Mopeli not attracting many pre-match pop concerts, the surface was good, the crowd loud… so perhaps we could look forward to another Kwaaa-Kwaaa showdown. The Orlando Stadium remains favourite, though Moses Mabhida and Nelson Mandela Bay have both been mooted.

And in the background looms the figure of Teko Modise, the Sundowns midfielder who holds the dubious distinction of being the best modern South African footballer NOT to have won a trophy.

Modise was picked up by SuperSport United  after winning the Mvela Golden League Player of the Season while playing for City Pillars during the 2005/2006 season. After two seasons with Matsatsantsa a Pitori when they finished 6^th and 7^thin the PSL, he was spotted by Orlando Pirates.

But while he was strutting his stuff for the Buccaneers and winning Player of the Year awards in 2008 and 2009, Teko had to be content with seeing SuperSport United win three titles in a row.

Then, when he left for Sundowns after a fall-out with Ruud Krol, the Buccaneers won two successive trebles after Modise's depature. Meanwhile Daine Klate, in direct contrast, had won FIVE titles on the trot with SuperSport and Pirates. All of which led, predictably, to talk of a Modise trophy jinx.

After his side crashed out of this season’s MTN8 against Moroka Swallows, Modise said: "It's very disappointing. We can't be talking about this same thing year after year."

This time, with Modise back to something approaching his best, won’t just be about Msandawana and Phunya Sele Sele. It will be the Teko Modise final. And I think the trophy-winning jinx may soon be at an end.

Komphela? Matthaus? Gullit? No, the new Kaizer Chiefs boss is... Stuart Baxter.

SO much for a little bit of excitement at Kaizer Chiefs. Lothar Matthaus’s CV has been submitted, Ruud Gullit’s shadow has been lurking over Naturena. But today, back to earth with a bump; we are told former South Africa boss Stuart Baxter is set to be named as the new coach.
The 58-year-old Scotsman is not confirmed, but both of the major South African football websites, www.kickoff.com and www.soccerladuma.com seem convinced – and the Wolverhampton-born journeyman has been spotted with Amakhosi founder Kaizer Motaung and his son-cum-mismanager Bobby in recent weeks.
Darn. Steve Komphela, a former Chief and local, has had a great season with Free State Stars and looked a great choice to take over from the current caretakers Doc Khumalo and Donald “Ace” Khuse. Clearly Komphela’s new role as assistant to Pitso Mosimane took precedence. Or did Kaizer just not fancy a local coach?
A new chief for the Chiefs appeared a must after the string of defeats which followed the departure of hard-line Serbian Vladimir Vermezovic a month ago. The upset win over leaders Mamelodi Sundowns last week was never going to be enough, though Chiefs could conceivably still finish in the top three.
So what do we know of Baxter? Is he better than Komphela… or Germany’s 1990 World Cup winning captain Matthaus? Or even the smooth-talking Gullit, generally unimpressive as a coach but a clear rival in the fame stakes when it comes to Sundowns’ own Dutch boss Johan Neeskens?
As far as I can tell, Baxter was last employed as “an advisor to the coach” at Swedish club AIK after ending his Finnish international connection last year.
Born in Wolverhampton but claiming kilt-wearing Scottishness through his dad, Baxter played for Preston North End in 1973. He later moved north to Dundee United before returning to England with Stockport County. Baxter then moved to Australia, Sweden and the United States with South Melbourne FC, Helsingborgs IF and San Diego Sockers to extend a playing career which ended in 1983 at the tender age of 30.
Much like new England boss Roy Hodgson (more about me and him here http://www.neal-collins.blogspot.com/2012/05/did-i-ever-mention-i-was-coached-by.html) Baxter went to Viking country for his first adult coaching experience. And the Hodgson connections don’t end there.
After working with Örebro SK's youth team he became manager at Idrettsforeningen Skarp (don’t ask me to spell that) in Norway in 1986 but moved up in the footballing world pretty quickly when he went to Portugal’s Vitória de Setúbal a year later.
By 1988, he was back in Sweden, where Halmstads BK were still recovering from Hodgson’s departure. In his first year with Halmstad he guided them to promotion but two seasons later they were relegated and Baxter decamped to Japan’s Sanfrecce Hiroshima before joining Vissel Kobe days after the earthquake of 1997. He worked out of a caravan as the club’ headquarters had been destroyed.
A year later, he was back in Scandinavia, this time with some success, winning the title with AIK before taking on Barcelona, Arsenal and Fiorentina in Champions League qualification. Sadly, they finished bottom of this particular group of death.
By the turn of the Millennium, he was with Norwegian side Lyn Oslo. But interesting times loomed.
Baxter took his first coaching job in England in 2002, when the Football Association asked him to coach England’s Under 19s; he was doing okay back in Britain... then South Africa made him Bafana Bafana boss.
He looked a fair appointment; experienced, FA backed, urbane. But qualifying proved fruitless, South Africa failed to make the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, and Baxter left in the autumn of 2005 after just over two years in the Rainbow Nation.
True to form, Baxter found himself back in Scandinavia, after another short spell with Vissel Kobe in Japan. This time it was another former Hodgson club, Helsingborg. He got them to the knock-out stages of the 2007 UEFA Cup/Europa League, and then resigned to take over as Finland’s national manager, another job title he shares with Hodgson.
Throughout the post South Africa years, Baxter kept in contact with players and agents in the PSL, and – using his Celtic connections – he secured a trial for Mamelodi Sundowns striker Katlego “Killer” Mphela amongst others at Parkhead.
He was rumoured to be headed for Glasgow as Celtic’s technical director during the 2010 World Cup but chose to extend his contract with Finland, promising to lead them to Euro 2012 later this year.
Defeats against Moldova and Hungary dented those hopes. Finland slumped in the FIFA rankings from 33 to 86 - and in November 2010 they parted “by mutual consent” after an acrimonious fall out with the local media. He told them: “You don’t have the footballing knowledge to have a go at me.”
Though linked repeatedly with major Swedish club Malmo FF – the only Swedish side ever to reach a European final - Baxter and his goakeeping son Lee were last employed as “advisors” back at AIK in Sweden before establishing contact with Kaizer and Bobby Motaung.
Though there are highpoints on that lengthy multinational CV, Baxter’s appointment – like Hodgson’s – will not stir the imagination. A lot depends now on what happens to Doc and Ace… and who is brought in at Naturena to help Baxter in his bid to rebuild after the VV era. Personally, I’d have gone for Komphela. A former Chiefs and Bafana captain, as articulate as they come and tactically astute, he is the local choice most South Africans seemed to favour.
But as usual, Kaizer – and Bobby – have steered the family business in a cheaper, safer direction. I hope the nation’s estimated 15 million Amakhosi will be happy with Baxter. Like Hodgson, I wish him luck in his new venture. He too will need plenty of it.
You can read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za. Watch eNews (DSTV 403) every Monday morning at 8.15am for my weekend round-ups. And you can follow me at www.twitter.com/nealcol.

O Little Town of Bethlehem: all you ever needed to know about Free State Stars

Home to the Stars: Bethlehem in the Free State

O little town of Bethlehem/How still we see thee lie/Above thy deep and dreamless sleep/The silent stars go by.


And there’s more, don’t go away, this really is a footballing tale of note …

Yet in thy dark streets shineth/The everlasting Light/The hopes and fears of all the years/Are met in thee tonight

Yes, Bethlehem. Birth place of the legendary Jesus H Christ? No, Bethlehem in the Free State actually. Population 66,704. Home of a whole constellation of silent stars from all over Africa who go under the collective name of Free State Stars.

When Rector Phillips Brooks (1835-1903) of Philadelphia, wrote the words to O Little Town of Bethlehem in 1868, following a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he probably didn’t envisage it would precise a footballing miracle nearly 150 years later.

But it does. Neatly, for a side whose goalkeeper has scored as many League goals this season as Benni McCarthy.

Nestled on Liebenbergs Vlei, along a fertile valley just south of the Rooiberg Mountains on the N5 highway, our modest All Stars have fashioned a football team which has taken the Rainbow Nation by storm this summer. Currently third in the South Africa Premier League, they are out-gunning the giants of Soweto, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. Only Gavin Hunt’s gritty Supersports United and the millionaires of Mamelodi Sundowns currently outshine Steve Komphela’s All Stars.

In winter, it can be the chilliest place in the country. At an altitude of 1700m, temperatures have been known to plummet to a frosty 11 degrees below zero in July. Yes, the toe-numbing climate goes against the grain but hey, the place is named after its wheat granaries, hence "Beit Lechem" (Hebrew for "house of bread").

They play their home games at versatile Goble Park – capacity 20,000, Free State hosted two first class cricket games there in the 1930s - the local township is called Bohlokong (Sesotho for "place of pain") and they expected a bit of discomfort at Soccer City last night (Saturday, 17 December), when they came up against Kaizer Motaung’s gold-and-black striped Amakhosi, level with Ea Lla Koto on 24 points, just four adrift of top dogs Supersport.

But fear not, defeat cannot dim the light cast in Bethlehem this Christmas. Their final game before the Festive break comes against the formidable Sundowns, but you won’t find Stars’ general manager Rantsi Mokoena chewing his nails. He told the club’s website: "Our team is a work in progress – but the truth is, I expect us to maintain our form.

“It is not a fluke we are third in the table. A fluke is when you win three or four games and people make noise about that and then you lose five games. We have won four and drawn the other one in the past five matches and that is consistency.

"We have retained players that traditionally we could have sold. We didn't have Paulus Masehe and Manti Moholo when we beat Maritzburg United away from home, but we got the three points.

"Previously, we could have been rattled if we didn't have those players, but now we say 'let's go there and get the three points', confidently so.

"There are players such as Mpho Makola – what a player he is – and Thabo Matlaba, who haven't seen a lot of game-time. We rate Thabo very highly, but we are sitting among the top teams without him.

"To show you the kind of confidence we show in our players, have a look at Rudiger Gilbert. He kept disappearing last season and made just 10 appearances. He did some introspection and realised he couldn't carry on like that.

“To be fair, the boy's mother was seriously ill last season and eventually passed away and I think that really disturbed him. Now he is having his best season in football, he has missed just one game all season and that was through suspension.

“Facilities are a big challenge here but from a privacy point of view, training at the local army base works for us.”

The Stars one problem? Referees. Boss Komphela, a former Kaizer Chief with a lengthy CV in South African footballing circles (Baby Bafana, Manning Rangers, Platinum Stars and Dynamos amongst others), says: “We are a small team, we do not complain about referees, instead we use them as motivation. We have had at least five points stolen from us this season by decisions (a goal unfairly denied against Platinum Stars and two goals against both Supersport and local rivals Bloemfontein Celtic) but referees are human.

“If a mistake is a deliberate act, then it raises suspicions. But we are on track. I am aiming for two points against Chiefs and Sundowns. We have capable players who can go all the way.

“The West African players our scouts found at a tournament up north have stabilised the team in all departments. Mix them with the local boys and we have a very competent outfit.”

Originally founded in 1977 as Makwane Computer Stars in a small village in Qwa-Qwa, the club gained promotion into the 1st division of the NPSL in 1986.

Sponsorship was secured from Fairways Supermarket and the side moved from Makwane to Phuthadithjaba, the hub of Qwa-Qwas`s economy. As Fairways Stars, the side grew in popularity and eventually became Qwa Qwa Stars with the Basotho slogan “Ea Lla Kotto” or ”fight to the end”.

The club's franchise was sold to the Premier Soccer League in 2002. A year later, Mike Mokoena revived the club and and in 2005, as Free State Stars, they were back in the Premiership after winning the Mvela Golden League.

They went straight back down but battled back to secure their top flight status in 2007–08. They list coach Komphela as their most-capped Bafana Bafana player with 10 international appearances (he actually won 24) and Bunene Ngaduana as the club’s historic top scorer with 79 goals (he scored 19 in 1993) while they list a record defeat of 7-1 against a certain Mamelodi Sundowns in 1998.

So what else can we tell you about the current side, who practice at the local defence force base and get changed in the car park before training? I can offer their captain Kennedy Mweene, a Zambian goalkeeper who likes to take penalties. He’s scored three times from the spot this season, which puts him level it a certain Mr McCarthy and Stars’ top scorer Katlego Mashego in the SAPL top-scorers’ list so far.

Mweene says on the club’s website www.freestatestars.co.za: “I am confident that we will reach 30 points before the Christmas break and that despite having to play the so called big teams and with the mood and confidence high in the camp I see nobody stopping us.

“In the past season we used to drop points with the “smaller” teams but tables have turned, we have been beating them left right and centre and playing Chiefs and Sundowns back-to-back is a motivation on its own.

“This is one of our best starts in a very long time and we have laid a good foundation and thanks to the management, technical team and players for their contribution in the club success this season and anything is possible. We could even win the league.”

Like most of the squad, Mweene learned his trade on dusty foreign fields. Training in front of soldiers with automatic weapons is no great shakes. A scouting mission to the West African Football Union tournament pre-season yielded a crop of Togolese stars – striker Morou Zakari, full back Sadate Akoriko and midfielder Dove Wome. From Nigeria, there’s top scorer David Agbagwu – just called up for their U23 Olympic squad - plus the currently injured international centre-back Soriala Gege.

While they will miss Gege in their final two games of the year, Agbagwu is bubbling with confidence. After stints with FC Bolowotan and FC Eko United in Lagos, he secured a moved to CD Athletico Baleares in the Spanish Segunda (second) division, where he recalls: “We used the ball a lot, my coach encouraged a lot of ball work at training because he had himself played for Barcelona before. The game is not as fast as the English Premier League or Italian Seria A but very much about slow build-ups with a killer finish. I enjoyed the lifestyle as well, there's a lot of good food and good weather there.”

Then came the move to Bethlehem via Ajax Cape Town, where, the 22-year-old says: “I would like to score goals for the Stars as they have shown belief in my talent. If all goes well, I want to do so well that I rise steadily until I turn out for either Manchester United or Barcelona.”

Lofty ambitions. But the dark and dreamless streets from Bethlehem to Barcelona have rarely looked shinier.