It’s all about the team for Tshabalala

Siphiwe Tshabalala will be leading Kaizer Chiefs in a Cup final for the first time when Amakhosi clash with Ajax Cape Town in the MTN8 final.

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Siphiwe Tshabalala will be leading Kaizer Chiefs in a Cup final for the first time when Amakhosi clash with Ajax Cape Town in the MTN8 final at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

But for the winger it’s not about him.

“For me it is about the team,” Tshabalala said ahead of the team’s training session in Naturena yesterday. “I want to play well for the team. And we want to play well as a collective and win this trophy. Yes, it will mean a lot to me leading the team to victory as the skipper. But to me, it is about the team.”

So far this season Chiefs have shown great fight to come back and win games they seemed to be on the verge of losing.

One of them was their quarter-final clash with Maritzburg United when they were 2-0 down at the break but came back to win 5-3 in extra-time.

And the skipper gives all the credit to coach Steve Komphela, saying he never puts them down and is a great motivator.

“I think the mindset is strong, we have a strong character. Twice or three times we have come from behind to win games and that is down to Komphela.

He is someone who is very approachable, very easy, but a disciplinarian as well. Most of the time he is very calm and positive, he knows how to raise his voice and how to motivate his players. We are enjoying being around him and we want to win this trop-hy for him.

“We play good, exciting football and we are a hard-working team. We fight for what we want and we are always ready to dig deep to achieve certain things.

“We want to continue with that, we are not there yet, we are still a work in progress. But we’ll get there, one step at time, the only focus now is the Cup final,” Tshabalala added.

Tshabalala also credited Ajax for reaching the final, but says they are not really concerned about the Cape side, as they are focussed on their own game.

“As much as we are preparing for the game, so are they. They also want to win the Cup final. We will give them the respect they deserve, they are a good team. But we are more focused on ourselves, what we are going to do and how we going to achieve our goal. They are a strong team, but we won’t dwell too much on that,” said Tshabalala.

The Chiefs skipper also added that everyone at the club is in high spirits ahead of the match, with the main objective being keeping the trophy at Naturena.

“So far so good, the mood is good in the team. We are looking forward to our next game.

“This is the final hurdle to reaching our goal, which is retaining the trophy.” - The Star