Cape Town Spurs captain Clayton Daniels and Cape Town City skipper Thamsanqa Mkhize shake hands ahead of the Cape Derby Cape Town Spurs captain Clayton Daniels and Cape Town City skipper Thamsanqa Mkhize shake hands ahead of the Cape Derby. Photo: Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix
The scene is set for Saturday's eagerly anticipated Cape Derby on the pristine DHL Stadium surface which has been laid at the considerable cost of R16m but all that matters will be the bragging rights that come with victory (starting at 3pm).
Bragging rights for the two teams, Cape Town City and Cape Town Spurs, take on a whole new meaning because of the bitter family feuds that have raged for years between the two families who own the two clubs.
Both clubs are in dire need of points because of their poor start to the DStv Premiership season and that should be their primary focus. Yet in the run-up to the match, players in both teams have been reminded of the importance of the match for the chairmen, and by extension for their families, who resorted to court action to settle the feud a few years ago.
City will start as favourites because they have already clocked two Premiership wins since the start of the season and are in 13th place in the 16-team league. In stark contrast, Spurs have yet to bag a single point after losing their opening six matches and are rock-bottom in 16th place.
Spurs coach Shaun Bartlett, despite the six-match losing streak, has not given up hope and feels the challenge of a derby could drive his team to greater heights.
“It has been a difficult start to our season in the DStv Premiership,” said Bartlett.
“As I indicated before, it's not something that we saw coming (the poor start) but that’s the reality of it at the time going into this massive game against City," said Bartlett.
“It is our first derby as Cape Town Spurs (formerly Ajax Cape Town), which is an enormous privilege, but our players understand the magnitude of the situation.
“This is the game where we don’t have to motivate the players as a technical team. The match itself will be the motivation, as predominantly our squad is from Cape Town.”
Bartlett said his team had produced fine spells of play but could not sustain and in the end, they could not close out a winning performance.
"You (our team) have got to be consistent. You cannot just have a couple of spells of three, four or five minutes, and then suddenly you have a lapse of concentration. That is the time you allow the opponent back in the game," said Bartlett.
Spurs will be relying on Morne Nel, their industrious midfielder who has been their key figure for the last couple of seasons. This box-to-box midfielder will be tasked to disrupt City’s passing rhythms and if he succeeds, Spurs will hold the upper hand in the middle of the park.
City will have Taahir Goedeman to wrest the midfield battle in their favour. He will be a key figure for coach Eric Tinkler because of his ability to create goalscoring opportunities. He will be a closely marked man.
The last time the teams met, Spurs were still Ajax Cape Town, and about to be relegated at the end of the 2017-18 season. They would spend the next five campaigns in the National First Division before making their way back up again.
The last sporting event held at the arena was the United Rugby Championship final between the Stormers and Munster at the end of May this year, and it attracted a capacity crowd of 55 000.
@Herman_Gibbs