Soweto derby: Kaizer Chiefs prepare for century of Orlando Pirates clashes

When Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates played out a seven-goal thriller on 24 April 1971 to mark the first official league meeting between the sides – which was won 4-3 by Amakhosi – few would have expected the rivalry between the two teams would have grown to the epic proportions that it is today.

READ | SOWETO DERBY MEMORY: KAIZER CHIEFS’ CLASS OF 1974 WERE ‘ACE’

Half a century later, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates are still at it and township supremacy is up for grabs when the two teams meet at FNB Stadium on Sunday, 21 March.

The match will also have a number of historical connotations as they are meeting for a 100th time in a league clash.

READ | BAFANA BAFANA DEALT MASSIVE BLOW AS KERMIT ERASMUS LIMPS OUT

The fact that Sunday’s clash will be the 100th official DStv Premiership meeting between the teams, will make both teams hungrier to want to go down in the annals of history as the team that won the centenary league game between the teams.

All week long the talk all over the country as well as online platforms has been about Sunday’s game.

READ | ‘GAVIN HUNT HAS BECOME A COWARD SINCE JOINING KAIZER CHIEFS’

As many know that form flies out of the window in this game, the late former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder John ‘Shoes’ Moshoeu demonstrated that in the 2002/03, when Kaizer Chiefs defeated title-chasing Orlando Pirates 2-0 in a home league game on 15 March 2003.

With the old cliché ringing true that form goes out of the window when these two teams who overall rivalry now spans 50 years meet, is very true and history has shown that Kaizer Chiefs have further incentive having already been defeated by Orlando Pirates in both legs of the MTN 8 semi-finals and the sides’ first league clash this season, Gavin Hunt and his charges will be looking to avoid a loss and pick up three points which will lift them up the table.

READ | TOP SA REFEREE TO BLOW KEY CAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CLASH

The importance of this game for both teams cannot be stressed enough as Kaizer Chiefs have ambitions of finishing as high as possible on the log, while Orlando Pirates still harbour hopes of chasing down league leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.

The entire focus over the weekend will be this 100th league clash between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.

READ | ITUMELENG KHUNE OUT OF SOWETO DERBY OVER COVID-19 FUNERAL PROTOCOLS

Amakhosi hold an advantage over the Buccaneers having won 40 of their previous 99 games against their rivals, while Orlando Pirates have 23 wins with 36 games ending in a draw.

Kaizer Chiefs will be looking to get their historic dominance over Orlando Pirates in league games up and running again, with what would be both a morale boosting, and historical win should they walk away with the three points.

QUIZ | ANSWER 10 EASY KAIZER CHIEFS QUESTIONS AND YOU COULD WIN AN AMAKHOSI JERSEY!

This match also sees the teams meet for a 50th time in a league game in the PSL era since the formation of the league ahead of the 1996/97 season.

Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates, SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns are the only teams remaining in the top-flight who have been campaigning in all 25 seasons since its inception.

PICTURE | PITSO MOSIMANE IS BACK IN SOUTH AFRICA!

Orlando Pirates will become the second team in the PSL era who Kaizer Chiefs would have met for a 50th time.

They played their 50th league game in the PSL era against SuperSport in a 1-1 draw on 20 February.

Two current Kaizer Chiefs players stand on various milestones for Amakhosi in derbies.

READ | ORLANDO PIRATES DESPERATE TO HAVE THEMBINKOSI LORCH FIT FOR SOWETO DERBY

Leonardo Castro and Daniel Cardoso have both scored four goals in all competitions against Orlando Pirates.

With Castro in doubt for the game, should Cardoso find the net, he will overtake his team-mate and earn the title of Kaizer Chiefs’ top goal scorer in the PSL era in all competitions against Orlando Pirates.

Another player with four goals in the PSL era for Kaizer Chiefs is former midfielder Siphiwe Tshabalala.

READ | SOWETO DERBY: THEMBINKOSI LORCH SHOWS OFF R12K GUCCI MICKEY MOUSE SNEAKERS

Overall, this will be the 173rd meeting in all competitions since 1970 between the sides.

Of those matches, Kaizer Chiefs have 69 wins to Orlando Pirates’ 44, with 54 clashes ending in a draw. There have also been five games which have been abandoned.

READ | SUPERSPORT GOES HI-TECH WITH CAMERAS, EXPERTS AND ANALYSTS

Sunday’s game will kick off at 15:00 and will be shown both SuperSport Channel 202 and SABC 1, but for the very best coverage, be sure to stay glued to The South African website!

IN CLOSING | BAYERN MUNICH STRIKER FINED R1 MILLION FOR DRIVING WRONG CAR TO TRAINING!