‘Stop Musona and half the job is done’

The name – Knowledge Musona – was bandied about several times at Johannesburg Stadium yesterday as if the Kaizer Chiefs striker turns out for Orlando Pirates.

“Eish, why is everyone asking about Musona?”

That was Pirates goalkeeper Moneeb Josephs’s reaction when asked about how the Sea Robbers are going to handle the troublesome Zimbabwean striker when the two Soweto giants clash in the Telkom Knockout final at Soccer City on Saturday night. It is against the backdrop that Musona inspired Chiefs to a 3-1 in the last derby three weeks ago that his name keeps popping ahead of this weekend’s showdowns. Musona scored twice against Josephs in that game.

“Musona hasn’t been giving us problems. Chiefs have been giving us problem. That’s a strong team. They move smoothly like a well oiled machine and Musona is just at the end of things,” said Josephs.

The former Ajax Cape Town goalminder says Pirates have to ensure that the Chiefs marksman is starved of service in order to render Musona ineffective on Saturday night.

“What we need to do is to cut out the service to Musona. Once we cut of services to Musona, his confidence will drop in five minutes. If he doesn’t get the ball he is going to drop to midfield and defence, where he is not of any importance. We can’t worry about Musona, we have to worry about Chiefs,” said the Bafana Bafana goalkeeper.

In their last meeting, Pirates walked away from the iconic stadium with their tails between their legs and minus three points. And Josephs, who was made to pick the ball from his own net not once or twice but thrice, believes their loss was self inflicted.

“We cant forget the last derby especially because of the result. We beat ourselves in that game. We made mistakes and they punished us. If we cut our mistakes we will be successful in this game,” said the former Wits goalkeeper.

Josephs says that minimising their mistakes could see them put one over their archrivals and hoist the trophy and the R4 million prize money.

“It’s going to be a competitive game. The team that makes the least mistakes is going to win the trophy at the end of the day,” said the Cape Town-born goalkeeper.

“Everyone wants the trophy badly. This is the Telkom Knockout and for me as a Pirates player, it would be the cherry on the cake to beat Chiefs and to win the trophy and take the money.” – Pretoria News