Cape Town City is the talk of the town this week.
Born in June, John
Comitis’ love child could come of age this weekend.
Picking up the Telkom Knockout trophy will confirm the club’s arrival amongst South Africa’s football elite and it’s great for the game in the Cape.
Believe me when I say that their success is nothing short of miraculous. It doesn’t often take such short periods of time for things to click in football or any sport for that matter.
Think back to Chelsea when Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003. The Russian spent huge amounts of money to assemble a team for Claudio Ranieri.
But it took more rubles and a Special coach to bring the title to Stamford Bridge the next year.
The same thing happened at Manchester City. After the Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008, they had to wait until 2011 for their first Premier League title.
So there usually is a period of waiting. At City, that theory could really be blown out of the water.
What’s the secret to their
success? There are a number of factors at play here.
One is the fact that Comitis got pretty lucky with the relocation of the players from the Black Aces franchise.
The club finished fourth in the PSL last season and the players had a pretty good understanding from their time together under Muhsin Ertugral, who teaches the football that Comitis is a fan of.
The second big factor about the move is the fact that these players now live and work in the city they represent.
At Aces, they had the prefix of Mpumalanga and played in Nelspruit’s Mbombela
Stadium. They had to do this even though the bulk of the players live in Joburg.
Nowadays, they are a much closer team than what they were while being upcountry and according to midfielder Thabo Nodada, that has been a huge boost to the team.
There has also been a sink-or-swim element added to the mix. Coach Eric Tinkler revealed that such was the pressure at the start of this journey, that the entire club has had to cultivate a belief that they have to make progress every time they train.
Apart from the core of the Aces side, the backroom staff and many of the players are working with each other for the very first time.
Tinkler and his assistants Ian Taylor and Calvin Marlin have gotten on like a bomb since coming together in preseason.
And the same goes for many of the new players, like Thamsanqa Mkhize, Robyn Johannes, Tshepo Gumede and imports like Matt Sim and Roland Putshce.
Lastly, it’s been good old fashioned, backbreaking hard work.
At the start of the season, these guys couldn’t koop a goal.
But now the PSL log leaders are joint-top goalscorers in the league and playing like a team that have been champions.
It’s just that this weekend, they can win something to prove it.