Whether its River Plate vs Boca, Inter vs AC or Rangers vs Celtic derby days hold a special place in the hearts and minds of football fans across the globe. In South Africa the “Big One” is, without question, Kaizer Chiefs vs Orlando Pirates.
The Orlando Pirates are the oldest professional team in the country. They hail (obviously) from the Orlando district of Soweto. But so do the Chiefs. In 1970 the Chiefs were formed by a breakaway group of players from the Pirates. Their founder, Kaizer Motaung, had just returned from a stint playing in the USA. The Soweto derby that took place on Saturday had added spice as it was the first to actually take place in Orlando in over 20 years. The Orlando stadium (which is not a WC2010 venue) is an impressive arena with a 40,000 capacity.
A small group from the High Commission, including the High Commissioner herself, went to the game. But because the fixture has generated some crowd problems over the years our security experts, Roger and Barry, had visited the stadium in advance to see for themselves how things would be handled. Apart from some chaotic parking marshalling they needn’t have worried. The white and black of the Pirates' fans mingled freely with the gold and black clad Chiefs' fans that were in the majority as the nominated “home” team. The noise and atmosphere in the stadium was awesome, further indication of the passion that visiting English fans will witness next winter. But kick off was delayed by about 15 minutes as the Chiefs' goalkeeper had to find a replacement shirt, his original one clashed with the Pirates' strip. The Chiefs attack .... Sadly, the game did not live up to the hype – and there had been a fair bit of it in the days leading up to the match. A nil – nil draw did neither team any favours in terms of league standing but then its often more important to fans that derby games are not lost, just ask any Spurs fan – they played Arsenal the same day! 
Posted at 07:03 02 November 2009 by Gary Benham | Comments[0]
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